In this work,gelatin-poly(acrylic acid) (GEL-PAA) nanospheres with diameter of around 35 nm were prepared using a polymermonomer (gelatin-AA) pair reaction system.These nanospheres can self-assemble into nanorods in aqueous solution at 4 °C.Based on the observation that the intermediate state of the formation of the nanorods and the facts that the self-assembly can only occur at relatively low temperature and the gelatin molecules on the outermost layer of the GEL-PAA nanospheres can be renatured to triple helix conformation,it can be rationally inferred that the hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions between the gelatin molecules with the triple helix structure induce the one-dimensional self-assembly of the nanospheres into nanorods.
The application of nanotechnology in medicine research has significant potential in modern biomedical research,disease diagnosis and therapy.Organic fluorophore-based detection techniques have been widely used as imaging and signal transduction tools for the detection of trace levels of analytes.The photosensitivity of the fluorophores,however,limits their application in such complex environments as living bio-systems where degradation or photobleaching occurs.Inorganic nanoparticles have unique and stable optical,electrical,magnetic and catalytic properties because of their various shapes,sizes and compositions.The potential of the nanoparticles as novel imaging agents has been studied as a possible solution to this problem.Surface modification of inorganic nanoparticles could enhance their biostability in physiological conditions and ability of targeting bioactive molecules.
DING Yin1,3,HU Yong2,WU Wei1 & JIANG XiQun1 1Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry and Department of Polymer Science and Engineering,College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering,Nanjing University,Nanjing 210093,China
