Name: controlled synthesis and fluorescence tracking of highly uniform poly(n-isopropylacrylamide) microgels
Uploaded: 2016-09-08T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Controlled Synthesis and Fluorescence Tracking of Highly Uniform PolyN-isopropylacrylamide Microgels at JoVE.com

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is acknowledged for financial support within the Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 985 "Functional Microgels and Microgel Systems".

1. Microgel Synthesis
NOTE: N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) was recrystallized from n-hexane. Other reagents were used as received.
<ol>
	<li>Conventional Batch Synthesis of Poly(NIPAM) Matrix Microgels
	<ol>
		<li>Dissolve 1.8 g NIPAM and 24 mg N,N&#39;-bisacrylamide (BIS) in 245 ml filtered (0.2 &#181;m regenerated cellulose (RC) membrane filter) double distilled water in a 500 ml three-neck round bottom flask equipped with a reflux condenser, a stirrer and a rubber septum....

<ol>
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Addition of small amounts of functional comonomer can have a significant effect on the particle size and structure of the PNIPAM derived microgels. Simultaneous small-scale test tube polymerization is a good method to account for such changes, and helps to rapidly find the right reactant compositions for target particle size for upscaling the reaction as needed. The mass of the particles is approximately exponentially dependent on the ...

Stimuli-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgels 1,2 have attracted continuous interest over the past two decades due to their potential in various smart applications. Demonstrated use cases include switchable emulsion stabilizers 3-8, microlenses 9, cell culture substrates for easy cell harvesting 10,11, and smart carriers for low molecular weight compounds and other biomedical uses 12. From a fundamental research point of view these particles have been proven to be useful for investigating subjects such as colloidal interactions 13-15 and polymer-solvent interactions 16-18.
Successful use of PNIPAM microgels and their derivatives in any given application typically requires knowledge on the mean particle size and width of the particle size distribution. For the correct interpretation of the experimental results involving PNIPAM microgels, the particle structure, which can be affected by functional comonomers, has to be known. Dynamic and static light scattering (DLS and SLS, respectively) are uniquely suited for acquiring this information because these methods are fast and relatively easy to use; and they probe the particle properties non-invasively in their native environment (dispersion). DLS and SLS also collect data from vast number of particles avoiding the bias arising from small sample sizes, typical for microscopy methods. Therefore, the first aim of this work is to introduce good practice regarding light scattering for practitioners new to colloidal characterization.
Typically, precipitation polymerization is carried out in laboratory scale and finding the right reaction conditions for specific particle properties can be laborious and require many repetitions of the synthesis. In contrast to large batch synthesis, non-stirred precipitation polymerization 19,20 is a rapid procedure in which batches of different reactant composition can be polymerized simultaneously yielding particles of narrow size distribution. Simultaneous polymerization minimizes experimental variation and large output means that right reaction conditions can be found fast for upscaling the reaction. Hence, our second aim is to demonstrate the usefulness of non-stirred precipitation polymerization in prototyping and in applications that do not require a large amount of product.
Different aspects of synthesis and characterization come together in the example of application of fluorescent labeled PNIPAM microgels in colloidal interaction research. Here we use highly accurate single particle tracking to investigate the diffusion of labeled tracer microgels in dispersion of unlabeled matrix microgels over a wide matrix concentration range and resolve the cage effect in concentrated colloidal dispersion. Wide-field fluorescence microscopy is well suited for this purpose as it can characterize the specific behavior of a few tracer molecules among a large number of potentially different matrix species. This is in contrast to techniques such as DLS, SLS and rheology, which measure the ensemble average properties of systems and therefore cannot resolve behavior of small number of probe particles in a large system. Furthermore, in this specific example conventional light scattering methods cannot be utilized also due to high particle concentration, which leads to strong multiple scattering invalidating any standard analysis. Use of automated data processing and statistical methods enable analysis of overall system behavior also for single particle tracking, when averaged over large sample sizes.

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			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:259px;">Acetone</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">VWR Chemicals</td>
			<td style="width:155px;">KRAF13455</td>
			<td style="width:129px;"></td>
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			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:259px;">Bisacrylamid</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">AppliChem</td>
			<td style="width:155px;">A3636</td>
			<td style="width:129px;"></td>
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			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:259px;">n-Hexane</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">Merck</td>
			<td style="width:155px;">104374</td>
			<td style="width:129px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:259px;">N-Isopropylacrylamide</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td style="width:155px;">AC412785000</td>
			<td>recrystallized from n-hexane</td>
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			<td height="40" style="height:40px;width:259px;">Methacryloxyethyl thiocarbamoyl rhodamine B</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">Polysciences</td>
			<td style="width:155px;">23591</td>
			<td style="width:129px;"></td>
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			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:259px;">Potassium peroxodisulfate</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">Merck</td>
			<td style="width:155px;">105091</td>
			<td style="width:129px;"></td>
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		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:259px;">Silicone oil 47 V 350</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">VWR Chemicals</td>
			<td style="width:155px;">83851</td>
			<td style="width:129px;"></td>
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		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;width:259px;">Toluene</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td style="width:155px;">244511</td>
			<td style="width:129px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">F12 Refrigerated/heating circulator</td>
			<td style="width:199px;">Julabo</td>
			<td>9116612</td>
			<td style="width:129px;"></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Microscope</td>
			<td>Olympus</td>
			<td>IX83</td>
			<td></td>
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		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">XY(Z) Piezo System</td>
			<td>Physik Instrumente</td>
			<td>P-545.3R7</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">100x Oil immersion objective</td>
			<td>Olympus</td>
			<td>UPLSAPO</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">QuadLine Beamsplitter</td>
			<td>AHF Analysentechnik</td>
			<td>F68-556T</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">&#160;Cobolt Jive 150 laser</td>
			<td>Cobolt</td>
			<td>0561-04-01-0150-300</td>
			<td></td>
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		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Multimode Fiber</td>
			<td>Thorlabs</td>
			<td>UM22-600</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">iXON Ultra 897 EMCCD camera</td>
			<td>Andor</td>
			<td>DU-897U-CS0-BV</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Laser goniometer</td>
			<td>SLS Systemtechnik</td>
			<td>Mark III</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">CF40 Cryo-compact circulator</td>
			<td>Julabo</td>
			<td>9400340</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Laser goniometer system&#160;</td>
			<td>ALV GmbH</td>
			<td>ALV / CGS-8F</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Multi-tau corretator</td>
			<td>ALV GmbH</td>
			<td>ALV-7004</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Light scattering electronics</td>
			<td>ALV GmbH</td>
			<td>ALV / LSE 5004</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">Photon counting module</td>
			<td>PerkinElmer</td>
			<td>SPCM-CD2969</td>
			<td>2 units in pseudo cross-correlation mode</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;">633 nm HeNe Laser</td>
			<td>JDS Uniphase</td>
			<td>1145P</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="20">
			<td height="20" style="height:20px;">F32 Refrigerated/heating circulator</td>
			<td>Julabo</td>
			<td>9312632</td>
			<td></td>
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controlled synthesis and fluorescence tracking of highly uniform poly(n-isopropylacrylamide) microgels

Stimuli-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgels have various prospective practical applications and uses in fundamental research. In this work, we use single particle tracking of fluorescently labeled PNIPAM microgels as a showcase for tuning microgel size by a rapid non-stirred precipitation polymerization procedure. This approach is well suited for prototyping new reaction compositions and conditions or for applications that do not require large amounts of product. Microgel synthesis, particle size and structure determination by dynamic and static light scattering are detailed in the protocol. It is shown that the addition of functional comonomers can have a large influence on the particle nucleation and structure. Single particle tracking by wide-field fluorescence microscopy allows for an investigation of the diffusion of labeled tracer microgels in a concentrated matrix of non-labeled microgels, a system not easily investigated by other methods such as dynamic light scattering.

The number of PNIPAM microgel particles in the batch, and thus the final particle volume, is determined early in the reaction during the nucleation phase 20 Hydrophobic co-monomer dye methacryloxyethyl thiocarbamoyl rhodamine B influences the nucleation by reducing the particle number density in the batch. The decrease in particle concentration for two different initial NIPAM concentrations can be seen as increase in...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Controlled Synthesis and Fluorescence Tracking of Highly Uniform PolyN-isopropylacrylamide Microgels at JoVE.com

Controlled Synthesis and Fluorescence Tracking of Highly Uniform PolyN-isopropylacrylamide Microgels

Non-stirred precipitation polymerization provides a rapid, reproducible prototyping approach to the synthesis of stimuli-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgels of narrow size distribution. In this protocol synthesis, light scattering characterization and single particle fluorescence tracking of these microgels in a wide-field microscopy setup are demonstrated.

Controlled Synthesis and Fluorescence Tracking of Highly Uniform Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Microgels

Stimuli-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) microgels have various prospective practical applications and uses in fundamental research. In this ...

The overall goal of this work is to investigate the dynamic behavior and interaction of soft colloidal particles in dispersions of various particle densities in the vicinity of glass transition. Microgels are soft objects that can adapt their size, shape, and mobility according to their environments. In contrast to rigid colloidal particles, there are many open questions concerning the behavior of soft microgels.The main advantage of wide field fluorescence microscopy is the possibility to localize single microgels with high accuracy, directly follow their motion in C2, and to analyze the amounts of diffusion. To investigate the dynamics of single microgels in dense systems, only a small number of microgels must be fluorescently labeled. Non-stirred precipitation polymerization allows for parallel synthesis of microgel with variable reaction conditions to conveniently match the size of labeled and unlabeled microgels.Dynamic light-scattering provides the average hydrodynamic radii of the microgels within an accuracy of a few nanometers. Dissolve 1.8 grams of NIPAM and 24 milligrams of BIS in 245 milliliters of filtered double-distilled water in a 500 milliliter, three-neck round bottom flask equipped with reflux condenser, a stirrer, and a rubber septum. Insert a thermometer and a 120-millimeter needle for the nitrogen input through the septum.Heat the solution to 60 degrees Celsius while stirring. Then, deoxygenate the solution by purging with nitrogen for 40 minutes. Simultaneously prepare an initiator solution of 155 milligrams of potassium persulfate, or KPS, in five milliliters of filtered double-distilled water, and bubble the solution with nitrogen to remove oxygen.Next, wash a syringe with nitrogen, and transfer the complete five milliliter KPS solution to a nitrogen-washed syringe equipped with a 120-millimeter needle. Lift the nitrogen needle above the solution level in the three-neck flask, and add the KPS solution rapidly through the rubber septum into the reactor. Let the polymerization proceed for one hour under nitrogen flow and slow stirring at 60 degrees Celsius.Use a Buchner funnel and filter paper to filter the hot reaction solution, and discard any big aggregates. After letting the dispersion cool down, centrifuge and redisperse the dispersion three times for 40 minutes at 257, 000 times G.Finally, redisperse the sediment in a minimum viable amount of double-distilled water before lyophilizing the dispersion for storing. Weigh 257.7 milligrams of NIPAM, 3.5 milligrams of BIS, and 1.5 milligrams of methacryloxyethyl thiocarbamoyl rhodamine B dye in a glass vessel, and add 10 milliliters of filter double-distilled water.Prepare the same solution without the dye in a separate glass vessel. Ultrasonicate the dye solution for 15 minutes to dissolve the dye in water. Prepare various dilutions of the monomer solution with the dye to obtain a concentration series.Here, dye in the concentration range of 02 to 0.1 millimole per liter is used. Next, dissolve 8.4 milligrams of KPS in 10 milliliters of filtered double-distilled water to get the initiator solution. Transfer 0.5 milliliters of the concentration series and 05 milliliters of the KPS solution to test tubes with a 10 millimeter diameter to obtain the final reaction solutions.Seal the tubes with rubber septa. Preheat an oil bath in a double-walled glass vessel connected to a heating circulator to 63 degrees Celsius. Deoxygenize the reaction solutions by purging with nitrogen through 120-millimeter needles for 20 minutes.Then, insert the tubes into a floating platform, and immerse the platform in the pre-heated oil bath. Set the temperature to 60 degrees Celsius. For high-precision particle size tuning, the temperature control during the initial reaction has to be rigorous, typically plus or minus 0.1 degrees Celsius.Let the reaction proceed for an appropriate amount of time. Typically, one hour is enough. Following the reaction, transfer the reaction tubes rapidly to an oven at 60 degrees Celsius.Put one drop of the hot dispersion in 10 milliliters of filtered double-distilled water, pre-heated over the poly-NIPAM volume phase transition temperature in order to measure the hydrodynamic radii of the particles in the collapsed state. Let the rest of the dispersions cool down to room temperature, and transfer them into centrifuge tubes. After centrifuging the solution, dilute the microgels in two milliliters of filtered double-distilled water to use as tracer particles.For hydrodynamic radius determination in the collapsed state by dynamic light scattering, first wash the cuvettes and glassware with acetone vapor. Transfer approximately one milliliter of diluted particle dispersion to a measurement cuvette. Temper the dynamic light-scattering goniometer index match bath to 50 degrees Celsius, and transfer the sample to the instrument without letting it cool down.Insert the sample cuvette, and move the detector arm to the small scattering angle. After checking the beam profile and count range as described in the text protocol, move the goniometer arm to the highest scattering angle. Check that the count rate is still high enough for the measurement.If the intensity is too low, move the arm to a lower scattering angle. Then, check the beam visually through the toluene bath glass at the lowest scattering angle. If glow around the incident beam is observed, multiple scattering takes place.Acquire 20 correlograms between the minimum and maximum scattering angle with a minimum acquisition time of 60 seconds. Increase the acquisition time for weak intensity large-scattering angles if necessary. Use an appropriate objective lens of the desired magnification and aperture for excitation of the tracers and simultaneous fluorescence collection from the sample.In this work, a 100X, 1.3 numerical aperture oil-immersion objective lens is used. Place the moisture chamber onto an XYZ pi-SO table that fits into a microscope. To prevent the sample from drying, place a plasma-cleaned cover slip into the moisture chamber, and pipette 10 microliters of the desired concentration of poly-NIPAM dispersion.Depending on the excitation and emission spectra of the fluorescent dye, use a suitable laser for excitation, and adjust the laser power appropriately. A 561-nanometer diode-pump solid state laser is used here at a constant laser power of 16 milliwatts. To obtain homogeneous sample illumination, couple the laser into a multimode fiber, shake the fiber using a vortexer to temporarily average out laser speckles, and project the fiber end into the sample plane.Calibrate the Z-distance from the back reflection of the cover slip, and focus several micrometers into the sample by moving the objective slightly up, and fix the Z-position using a Z-compensator. This avoids any interface effects with the cover slip. Adjust the detector parameters, such as exposure time, to the strength of the fluorescent signal.In this case, an EMCCD camera is used with an exposure time of 0.1 seconds in electron-multiplying mode and a gain of 50. Acquire several movies with the appropriate number of frames to obtain adequate lag time to calculate the mean-squared displacement of the microgels in different regions of the sample. Eight labeled microgel batches were synthesized.For six batches, correlogram decay rates linear rise against the square of the scattering vector magnitude, which indicates narrow size distribution. A fit through the origin indicates only translational diffusion. For two batches, nonlinear behavior is observed.The deviation is caused by broad size distribution and a particle form factor minimum, which coincides with the scattering vector range. To obtain a better estimate for the mean diffusion coefficient of the particles, exclude these points from the fit. High signal to noise ratio enables tracking of fluorescent microgels.Their diffusion is restricted by the the unlabeled microgel matrix. Higher concentrations of unlabeled microgel matrix on the right leads to a pronounced cage effect, where the fluorescent microgels are trapped in an unlabeled matrix of microgels. At low concentrations of unlabeled mircogel matrix, the tracer microgels exhibit normal diffusion, which is inferred from the linear increase of mean-square displacement with lag time.However, at high concentrations close to the colloidal glass transition, they exhibit nonlinear diffusion, depicted by nonlinear temporal evolution of mean-square displacements. At higher concentration of unlabeled microgel matrix, the tracer microgels are trapped by unlabeled neighbors into transient cages, as illustrated by clustered tracks for 12 microgels. Parallel small-scale synthesis enables fast experimentation with different reaction parameters.This also minimizes any undesired experimental variation due to reaction temperature differences. In combination with the careful dynamic light-scattering characterization, the reaction conditions for the right microgel size can be found fast. In this video, we demonstrate how controlled microgel synthesis allows us to investigate the diffusion of single microgels in concentrated microgel solutions by wide field fluorescence microscopy.Following this procedure, it will be possible to understand how the structure of microgels controls their properties. This will open the door to designing new soft interactive matter.

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Research

JoVE Journal

Chemistry

Synthesis of Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) Janus Microhydrogels for Anisotropic Thermo-responsiveness and Organophilic/Hydrophilic Loading Capability

Janus microparticles are compartmentalized particles with differing molecular structures and/or functionality on each of their two sides. Because of this unique property, Janus microparticles have been recognized as a new class of materials, thereby attracting a great deal of attention from various research fields. The versatility of these microparticles has been exemplified through their uses as building blocks for self-assembly, electrically responsive actuators, emulsifiers for painting and cosmetics, and carriers for drug delivery. This study introduces a detailed protocol that explicitly describes a synthetic method for designing novel Janus microhydrogels composed of a single base material, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm). Janus microdroplets are firstly generated via a hydrodynamic focusing microfluidic device (HFMD) based on the separation of a supersaturated aqueous NIPAAm monomer solution and subsequently polymerized through exposure to UV irradiation. The resulting Janus microhydrogels were found to be entirely composed of the same base material, featured an easily identifiable compartmentalized morphology, and exhibited anisotropic thermo-responsiveness and organophilic/hydrophilic loading capability. We believe that the proposed method introduces a novel hydrogel platform with the potential for advanced synthesis of multi-functional Janus microhydrogels.

Synthesis of PolyN-isopropylacrylamide Janus Microhydrogels for Anisotropic Thermo-responsiveness and Organophilic/Hydrophilic Loading Capability

We present a protocol to synthesize Janus microhydrogels composed entirely of the same base material, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm), with a clearly compartmentalized structure base on the phase separation of a supersaturated NIPAAm monomer solution. The synthesized Janus microhydrogels show unique properties such as anisotropic thermo-responsiveness and organophilic/hydrophilic loading capability.

Janus microparticles are compartmentalized particles with differing molecular structures and/or functionality on each of their two sides. Because of this ...

Highly Stereoselective Synthesis of 1,6-Ketoesters Mediated by Ionic Liquids: A Three-component Reaction Enabling Rapid Access to a New Class of Low Molecular Weight Gelators

In organic chemistry ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as safe and recyclable reaction solvents. In the presence of a base ILs can be deprotonated to form catalytically active N-Heterocyclic Carbenes (NHCs). Here we have used ILs as precatalysts in the addition of &#945;,&#946;-unsaturated aldehydes to chalcones to form 1,6-ketoesters, incorporating an anti-diphenyl moiety in a highly stereoselective fashion. The reaction has a broad substrate scope and several functional groups and heteroaromatics can be integrated into the ketoester backbone in generally good yields with maintained stereoselectivity. The reaction protocol is robust and scalable. The starting materials are inexpensive and the products can be obtained after simple filtration, avoiding solvent-demanding chromatography. Furthermore, the IL can be recycled up to 5 times without any loss of reactivity. Moreover, the 1,6-ketoester end product is a potent gelator in several hydrocarbon based solvents. The method enables rapid access to and evaluation of a new class of low molecular weight gelators (LMWGs) from recyclable and inexpensive starting materials.

Ionic liquids (ILs) mediate fast, simple and cheap access to 1,6-ketoesters in high diastereoselectivities and good yields. The reaction protocol is robust and the 1,6-ketoesters can be obtained in gram scale after a simple filtration protocol. Moreover, the 1,6-ketoesters are potent gelators in hydrocarbon solvents.

In organic chemistry ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as safe and recyclable reaction solvents. In the presence of a base ILs can be deprotonated to form ...

A Simple Method for the Size Controlled Synthesis of Stable Oligomeric Clusters of Gold Nanoparticles under Ambient Conditions

Reducing dilute aqueous HAuCl4 with sodium thiocyanate (NaSCN) under alkaline conditions produces 2 to 3 nm diameter nanoparticles. Stable grape-like oligomeric clusters of these yellow nanoparticles of narrow size distribution are synthesized under ambient conditions via two methods. The delay-time method controls the number of subunits in the oligoclusters by varying the time between the addition of HAuCl4 to alkaline solution and the subsequent addition of reducing agent, NaSCN. The yellow oligoclusters produced range in size from ~3 to ~25 nm. This size range can be further extended by an add-on method utilizing hydroxylated gold chloride (Na+[Au(OH4-x)Clx]-) to auto-catalytically increase the number of subunits in the as-synthesized oligocluster nanoparticles, providing a total range of 3 nm to 70 nm. The crude oligocluster preparations display narrow size distributions and do not require further fractionation for most purposes. The oligoclusters formed can be concentrated &#62;300 fold without aggregation and the crude reaction mixtures remain stable for weeks without further processing. Because these oligomeric clusters can be concentrated before derivatization they allow expensive derivatizing agents to be used economically. In addition, we present two models by which predictions of particle size can be made with great accuracy.

We describe a simple method for producing highly stable oligomeric clusters of gold nanoparticles via the reduction of chloroauric acid (HAuCl4) with sodium thiocyanate (NaSCN). The oligoclusters have a narrow size distribution and can be produced with a wide range of sizes and surface coats.

Reducing dilute aqueous HAuCl4 with sodium thiocyanate (NaSCN) under alkaline conditions produces 2 to 3 nm diameter nanoparticles. Stable grape-like ...

Synthesis and Characterization of Supramolecular Colloids

Control over colloidal assembly is of utmost importance for the development of functional colloidal materials with tailored structural and mechanical properties for applications in photonics, drug delivery and coating technology. Here we present a new family of colloidal building blocks, coined supramolecular colloids, whose self-assembly is controlled through surface-functionalization with a benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) derived supramolecular moiety. Such BTAs interact via directional, strong, yet reversible hydrogen-bonds with other identical BTAs. Herein, a protocol is presented that describes how to couple these BTAs to colloids and how to quantify the number of coupling sites, which determines the multivalency of the supramolecular colloids. Light scattering measurements show that the refractive index of the colloids is almost matched with that of the solvent, which strongly reduces the van der Waals forces between the colloids. Before photo-activation, the colloids remain well dispersed, as the BTAs are equipped with a photo-labile group that blocks the formation of hydrogen-bonds. Controlled deprotection with UV-light activates the short-range hydrogen-bonds between the BTAs, which triggers the colloidal self-assembly. The evolution from the dispersed state to the clustered state is monitored by confocal microscopy. These results are further quantified by image analysis with simple routines using ImageJ and Matlab. This merger of supramolecular chemistry and colloidal science offers a direct route towards light- and thermo-responsive colloidal assembly encoded in the surface-grafted monolayer.

A protocol for the synthesis and characterization of colloids coated with supramolecular moieties is described. These supramolecular colloids undergo self-assembly upon the activation of the hydrogen-bonds between the surface-anchored molecules by UV-light.

Control over colloidal assembly is of utmost importance for the development of functional colloidal materials with tailored structural and mechanical ...

Scale-up Chemical Synthesis of Thermally-activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters Based on the Dibenzothiophene-S,S-Dioxide Core

We report a procedure to linearly scale-up the synthesis of 2,8-bis(3,6-di-tert-butyl-9H-carbazol-9-yl)dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide (compound 4) and 2,8-bis(10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide (compound 5) using Buchwald-Hartwig cross-coupling reaction conditions. In addition, we demonstrate a scaled-up synthesis of all non-commercially available starting materials that are required for the amination cross-coupling reaction. In the present article, we provide the detailed synthetic procedures for all of the described compounds, alongside their spectral characterization. This work shows the possibility to produce organic molecules for optoelectronic applications on a large scale, which facilitates their implementation into real world devices.

Scale-up synthesis of highly efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters is described in the presented article.

We report a procedure to linearly scale-up the synthesis of 2,8-bis(3,6-di-tert-butyl-9H-carbazol-9-yl)dibenzothiophene-S,S-dioxide (compound 4) and ...

Synthesis and Mass Spectrometry Analysis of Oligo-peptoids

Peptoids are sequence-controlled peptide-mimicking oligomers consisting of N-alkylated glycine units. Among many potential applications, peptoids have been thought of as a type of molecular information storage. Mass spectrometry analysis has been considered the method of choice for sequencing peptoids. Peptoids can be synthesized via solid phase chemistry using a repeating two-step reaction cycle. Here we present a method to manually synthesize oligo-peptoids and to analyze the sequence of the peptoids using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) techniques. The sample peptoid is a nonamer consisting of alternating N-(2-methyloxyethyl)glycine (Nme) and N-(2-phenylethyl)glycine (Npe), as well as an N-(2-aminoethyl)glycine (Nae) at the N-terminus. The sequence formula of the peptoid is Ac-Nae-(Npe-Nme)4-NH2, where Ac is the acetyl group. The synthesis takes place in a commercially available solid-phase reaction vessel. The rink amide resin is used as the solid support to yield the peptoid with an amide group at the C-terminus. The resulting peptoid product is subjected to sequence analysis using a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer coupled to an electrospray ionization source. The MS/MS measurement produces a spectrum of fragment ions resulting from the dissociation of charged peptoid. The fragment ions are sorted out based on the values of their mass-to-charge ratio (m/z). The m/z values of the fragment ions are compared against the nominal masses of theoretically predicted fragment ions, according to the scheme of peptoid fragmentation. The analysis generates a fragmentation pattern of the charged peptoid. The fragmentation pattern is correlated to the monomer sequence of the neutral peptoid. In this regard, MS analysis reads out the sequence information of the peptoids.

A protocol is described for the manual synthesis of oligo-peptoids followed by sequence analysis by mass spectrometry.

Peptoids are sequence-controlled peptide-mimicking oligomers consisting of N-alkylated glycine units. Among many potential applications, peptoids have ...

Synthesis of Substrate-Bound Au Nanowires Via an Active Surface Growth Mechanism

Advancing synthetic capabilities is important for the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The synthesis of nanowires has always been a challenge, as it requires asymmetric growth of symmetric crystals. Here, we report a distinctive synthesis of substrate-bound Au nanowires. This template-free synthesis employs thiolated ligands and substrate adsorption to achieve the continuous asymmetric deposition of Au in solution at ambient conditions. The thiolated ligand prevented the Au deposition on the exposed surface of the seeds, so the Au deposition only occurs at the interface between the Au seeds and the substrate. The side of the newly deposited Au nanowires is immediately covered with the thiolated ligand, while the bottom facing the substrate remains ligand-free and active for the next round of Au deposition. We further demonstrate that this Au nanowire growth can be induced on various substrates, and different thiolated ligands can be used to regulate the surface chemistry of the nanowires. The diameter of the nanowires can also be controlled with mixed ligands, in which another &#34;bad&#34; ligand could turn on the lateral growth. With the understanding of the mechanism, Au nanowire-based nanostructures can be designed and synthesized.

We report a solution-based method to synthesize substrate-bound Au nanowires. By tuning the molecular ligands used during the synthesis, the Au nanowires can be grown from various substrates with different surface properties. Au nanowire-based nanostructures can also be synthesized by adjusting the reaction parameters.

Advancing synthetic capabilities is important for the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The synthesis of nanowires has always been a ...

Synthesis and Characterization of Amphiphilic Gold Nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles covered with a mixture of 1-octanethiol (OT) and 11-mercapto-1-undecane sulfonic acid (MUS) have been extensively studied because of their interactions with cell membranes, lipid bilayers, and viruses. The hydrophilic ligands make these particles colloidally stable in aqueous solutions and the combination with hydrophobic ligands creates an amphiphilic particle that can be loaded with hydrophobic drugs, fuse with the lipid membranes, and resist nonspecific protein adsorption. Many of these properties depend on nanoparticle size and the composition of the ligand shell. It is, therefore, crucial to have a reproducible synthetic method and reliable characterization techniques that allow the determination of nanoparticle properties and the ligand shell composition. Here, a one-phase chemical reduction, followed by a thorough purification to synthesize these nanoparticles with diameters below 5 nm, is presented. The ratio between the two ligands on the surface of the nanoparticle can be tuned through their stoichiometric ratio used during synthesis. We demonstrate how various routine techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrometry, are combined to comprehensively characterize the physicochemical parameters of the nanoparticles.

Amphiphilic gold nanoparticles can be used in many biological applications. A protocol to synthesize gold nanoparticles coated by a binary mixture of ligands and a detailed characterization of these particles is presented.

Gold nanoparticles covered with a mixture of 1-octanethiol (OT) and 11-mercapto-1-undecane sulfonic acid (MUS) have been extensively studied because of ...

Hierarchical and Programmable One-Pot Oligosaccharide Synthesis

This article presents a general experimental protocol for programmable one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis and demonstrates how to use Auto-CHO software for generating potential synthetic solutions. The programmable one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis approach is designed to empower fast oligosaccharide synthesis of large amounts using thioglycoside building blocks (BBLs) with the appropriate sequential order of relative reactivity values (RRVs). Auto-CHO is a cross-platform software with a graphical user interface that provides possible synthetic solutions for programmable one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis by searching a BBL library (containing about 150 validated and &#62;50,000 virtual BBLs) with accurately predicted RRVs by support vector regression. The algorithm for hierarchical one-pot synthesis has been implemented in Auto-CHO and uses fragments generated by one-pot reactions as new BBLs. In addition, Auto-CHO allows users to give feedback for virtual BBLs to keep valuable ones for further use. One-pot synthesis of stage-specific embryonic antigen 4 (SSEA-4), which is a pluripotent human embryonic stem cell marker, is demonstrated in this work.

This protocol demonstrates how to use the Auto-CHO software for hierarchical and programmable one-pot synthesis of oligosaccharides. It also describes the general procedure for RRV determination&#160;experiments and one-pot glycosylation of SSEA-4.

This article presents a general experimental protocol for programmable one-pot oligosaccharide synthesis and demonstrates how to use Auto-CHO software for ...

Gold Nanoparticle Synthesis

Gold nanoparticles (Au nanoparticles) that are ~12 nm in diameter were synthesized by rapidly injecting a solution of 150 mg (0.15 mmol) of tetrachloroauric acid in 3.0 g (3.7 mmol, 3.6 mL) of oleylamine (technical grade) and 3.0 mL of toluene into a boiling solution of 5.1 g (6.4 mmol, 8.7 mL) of oleylamine in 147 mL of toluene. While boiling and mixing the reaction solution for 2 hours, the color of the reaction mixture changed from clear, to light yellow, to light pink, and then slowly to dark red. The heat was then turned off, and the solution was allowed to gradually cool down to room temperature for 1 hour. The gold nanoparticles were then collected and separated from the solution using a centrifuge and washed three times; by vortexing and dispersing the gold nanoparticles in 10 mL portions of toluene, and then precipitating the gold nanoparticles by adding 40 mL portions of methanol and spinning them in a centrifuge. The solution was then decanted to remove any remaining byproducts and unreacted starting materials. Drying the gold nanoparticles in a vacuum environment produced a solid black pellet; which could be stored for long periods of time (up to one year) for later use, and then redissolved in organic solvents such as toluene.

A protocol for synthesizing ~12 nm diameter gold nanoparticles (Au nanoparticles) in an organic solvent is presented. The gold nanoparticles are capped with oleylamine ligands to prevent agglomeration. The gold nanoparticles are soluble in organic solvents such as toluene.