Single-Pot Synthesis of Uniform Glucan Multilayers On Oxide Particles

Title: Single-Pot Synthesis of Uniform Glucan Multilayers on Oxide Particles

Authors: Joseph Jankolovits, Oz M. Gazit, Michael M. Nigra, Alexander Katz

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

University of California, Berkeley

Polymer coatings are used widely to tune the surface chemistry of solids in biomaterials, paints, and other materials. Covalently grafted polymer coatings provide advantageous stability, though their prevailing syntheses involve multiple step procedures, low solid yields and surface coverage, and/or non-uniformity on the nanoscale. A novel method for uniformly grafting polymer multilayers on inorganic oxide particles in a single-pot process will be demonstrated using a wide variety of characterization techniques. Implications of the grafted polymer multilayer coatings on inorganic oxide particles for the stabilization of paint pigment dispersions will be discussed. Efforts to prepare grafted polymer multilayers on nanoparticles will be described. The promise of these grafted polymer multilayer coatings on inorganic oxide particles in biomaterials and nanomedicine will be highlighted.