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Microstructure Formation and Property of Chitosan‐Poly(acrylic acid) Nanoparticles Prepared by Macromolecular Complex
Author(s) -
Chen Qi,
Hu Yong,
Chen Ying,
Jiang Xiqun,
Yang Yonghua
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
macromolecular bioscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.924
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1616-5195
pISSN - 1616-5187
DOI - 10.1002/mabi.200500098
Subject(s) - nanoparticle , microstructure , polyelectrolyte , acrylic acid , chemical engineering , chitosan , polymer chemistry , macromolecule , materials science , aqueous solution , polymer , colloid , chemistry , nanotechnology , copolymer , organic chemistry , composite material , biochemistry , engineering
Summary: We report here a study on the microstructure formation process of polymeric nanoparticles based on polyelectrolyte complexes. When polyanion poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) was dropped into polycation chitosan (CS) solution, CS‐PAA nanoparticles with diverse microstructure would be formed under different experimental conditions. The microstructure of CS‐PAA nanoparticles changed from solid spherical nanoparticles to core‐shell separative ones and turned back to solid spherical ones with the variation of preparation conditions. The influence of molecular weight of CS and PAA, shell cross‐linking, dropping temperature on the size, stability and morphology of CS‐PAA nanoparticles were also studied. The nanoparticle size was affected by the molecular weight of CS and PAA, the ratio of amino group to carboxyl group ( n a / n c ) and the incubation temperature as well. The shell‐cross‐linking provides a means to stabilize these nanoparticles. These nanoparticles can encapsulate plasmid DNA very well, which makes them have great potential in gene delivery.Microstructure of non‐cross‐linked CS‐PAA nanoparticles, encapsulated plasmid DNA, at various n a / n c .