Tuning the Light Response of Strong Polyelectrolyte Brushes with Counterions

Cartilage-bioinspired, tough and lubricated hydrogel based on nanocomposite enhancement effect

The maintenance of high load-bearing tissues and joint lubrication is essential for suppressing osteoarthritis. The lubrication of natural joints is mainly attributed to the hydration lubrication mechanism of articular cartilage. Phospholipids on the cartilage surface attract water molecules to form a tough hydrated layer to reduce friction. In this work, inspired by the phosphatidylcholine lipids, we synthesized lubricated nanospheres by grafting hydrophilic polymer brushes and further synthesized a nanocomposite hydrogel. The addition of the lubricated nanospheres enhanced both the mechanical and lubricated properties of the hydrogel. The nanocomposite-lubricated hydrogel exhibited a friction coefficient 81.7% lower than the blank hydrogel because of grafting the polymer brushes. Also, the nanocomposite enhancement helped the hydrogel achieve high mechanical properties with a compressive strength of 6.63 MPa (50%). The nanocomposite hydrogel developed here could be a promising candidate material in bionic articular cartilage substitute materials.

Preparation and self-assembly of ionic (PNIPAM-co-VIM) microgels and their adsorption property for phosphate ions

Using N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM) as the main monomer, 1-vinyl imidazole (VIM) containing tertiary amine groups as the functional comonomer, and 1,5-dibromo pentane as the crosslinking agent, ionic P(NIPAM-co-VIM) microgels were prepared by a two-step method. The crosslinking agent was reacted with tertiary amino groups by the quaternary amination. The results of zeta potential and particle size analysis showed that P(NIPAM-co-VIM) microgels were positively charged and had a particle size of about 400 nm, and the microgels with 11 wt% VIM still showed temperature sensitivity with a volume phase transition temperature of approximately 37.5 °C. The effects of VIM content, ambient temperature, and pH on the adsorption properties of the microgels for phosphate anions were explored. The self-assembly of the positively charged P(NIPAM-co-VIM) microgels with polyelectrolytes and the adsorption behavior of the layers for phosphate anions were studied using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). It was found that at a phosphate concentration of 0.3 mg mL^-1, VIM mass fraction of 11%, pH of 5, and temperature of 20 °C, the largest adsorption capacity of P(NIPAM-co-VIM) microgel on phosphate ions could reach 346.3 mg g^-1. The frequency responses of the microgel-modified QCM sensor could reach 3.0, 18.8, and 25.9 Hz when exposed to 10^-8, 10^-7, and 10^-6 M phosphate solutions. Therefore, the ionic (PNIPAM-co-VIM) microgels could be promising for fabricating anion-binding materials for separation and sensing applications.

Studies on Thiol Etching of Gold by Using QCM-D Sensor as the Sacrificial Probe

There is still a lack of deep understanding on the reaction kinetics and mechanism of thiol etching of gold. Herein, by using the sensor of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) as the sacrificial probe, the etching reaction of gold has been studied by employing cysteamine (CS) as a typical thiol etchant. The etching reaction is verified as diffusion-controlled and shows a half-order reaction kinetics. It is demonstrated that intact thiol and amino on CS are both crucial for its etching ability to gold. Applied potentials can affect the electron transfer and hence can be used to regulate the gold etching. Our results also reveal that only two carbon atoms of the spacer between thiol and amino on CS are very critical to the excellent etching ability. This work exhibits a new route to explore the thiol etching reaction of gold and elucidates the reaction kinetics and mechanism.

Construction of a Self-Assembled Polyelectrolyte/Graphene Oxide Multilayer Film and Its Interaction with Metal Ions

In this study, a composite multilayer film onto gold was constructed from two charged building blocks, i.e., negatively charged graphene oxide (GO) and a branched polycation (polyethylenimine, PEI) via layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly technology, and this process was monitored in situ with quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) under different experimental conditions. This included the differences in frequency (Δf) as well as the changes in dissipation to yield information on the absorbed mass and viscoelastic properties of the formed PEI/GO multilayer films. The experimental conditions were optimized to obtain a high amount of the adsorbed mass of the self-assembled multilayer film. The surface morphology of the PEI/GO multilayer film onto gold was studied with atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was found that the positively charged PEI chains were combined with the oppositely charged GO to form an assembled film on the QCM sensor surface, in a wrapped and curled fashion. Raman and UV-vis spectra also showed that the intensities of the GO-characteristic signals are almost linearly related to the layer number. To explore the films for their use in divalent ion detection, the frequency response of the PEI/GO multilayer-modified QCM sensor to the exposure of aqueous solutions solution of Cu²⁺, Ca²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Sn²⁺ was further studied using QCM. Based on the Sauerbrey equation and the weight of different ions, the number of metal ions adsorbed per unit area on the surface of QCM sensors was calculated. For metal ion concentrations of 40 ppm, the adsorption capacities per unit area of Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Sn²⁺, and Ca²⁺ were found to be 1.7, 3.2, 0.7, and 4.9 nmol/cm², respectively. Thus, in terms of the number of adsorbed ions per unit area, the QCM sensor modified by PEI/GO multilayer film shows the largest adsorption capacity of Ca²⁺. This can be rationalized by the relative hydration energies.