The Applications of Spherical Polyelectrolyte Brushes

The spherical polyelectrolyte brushes (SPB) are stable colloid system with polymer chains densely grafted from core. The functional polymer chains and core-shell structure provided many potential applications in many fields, such as catalyst and biology. The SPB have been reported to be used as nanoreactors for loading catalyst. The hybrid nanoparticles exhibited outstanding performances in catalytic efficiency. As nanoreactor, the SPB were firstly used as quantum dots carriers which exhibited stability and reversible photoluminescence. Both CdTe and CdS could be successfully immobilized in the shell of SPB with narrow distribution. Besides acting as nanoreactor, the SPB could be acting as crosslinkers to fabricate tough hydrogel with super water absorbency. The functional polymer chains of SPB had multi-crosslinking points and the weight content of SPB was dramatically decreased in the hydrogel. Therefore, the hydrogel was transparent and combined the characteristics of toughness and water absorbency. Furthermore, the SPB could be formed membrane to effectively adsorb dyes and filter nanoparticles which was still in the investigation. The SPB have various applications in industrial and engineering fields.