Redox-controlled molecular permeability of composite-wall microcapsules

Ma, Yujie and Dong, Wen-Fei and Hempenius, Mark A. and Möhwald, Helmuth and Vancso, G. Julius (2006) Redox-controlled molecular permeability of composite-wall microcapsules. Nature Materials, 5 . pp. 724-729. ISSN 1476-1122

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Abstract:	Many smart materials in bioengineering, nanotechnology and medicine allow the storage and release of encapsulated drugs on demand at a specific location by an external stimulus. Owing to their versatility in material selection, polyelectrolyte multilayers are very promising systems in the development of microencapsulation technologies with permeation control1, 2, 3, 4 governed by variations in the environmental conditions5, 6, 7, 8. Here, organometallic polyelectrolyte multilayer capsules, composed of polyanions and polycations of poly(ferrocenylsilane) (PFS), are introduced. Their preparation involved layer-by-layer self-assembly onto colloidal templates followed by core removal. PFS polyelectrolytes feature redox-active ferrocene units in the main chain. Incorporation of PFS into the capsule walls allowed us to explore the effects of a new stimulus, that is, changing the redox state9, 10, on capsule wall permeability. The permeability of these capsules could be sensitively tuned via chemical oxidation, resulting in a fast capsule expansion accompanied by a drastic permeability increase in response to a very small trigger. The substantial swelling could be suppressed by the application of an additional coating bearing common redox-inert species of poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS-) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH+) on the outer wall of the capsules. Hence, we obtained a unique capsule system with redox-controlled permeability and swellability with a high application potential in materials as well as in bioscience.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© Nature Publishing Group
Faculty:	Science and Technology (TNW)
Research Group:	Biomolecular Nanotechnology (BNT) Materials Science and Technology of Polymers (MTP)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/74126
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat1716
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