Issue 1, 2013

Making polymeric nanoparticles stimuli-responsive with dynamic covalent bonds

Abstract

This review article highlights recent progress in the development of new polymeric nanoparticles which display stimuli-responsiveness on account of their incorporation of dynamic covalent bonds (DCBs). These bonds can form and cleave in response to changes in environmental parameters, such as pH or presence of reducing/oxidizing agents, and chemists have utilized this reversibility to make increasingly sophisticated stimuli-responsive polymeric nanoparticles. Another key feature of DCBs is their capacity to undergo component exchange processes involving the exchange for one reaction partner for another (for example, the reaction of an imine with an amine to produce a different imine and amine), which can present polymeric nanoparticles opportunities to modify their constitutions by reshuffling, incorporating or releasing components. The utilization of the responsive nature of DCBs presents an alternative approach towards stimuli-responsive polymeric nanoparticles which does not rely upon the utilization of ‘conventional’ stimuli-responsive polymers such as poly(N-isopropylpolyacrylamide). These new stimuli-responsive polymeric nanoparticles could find application in contemporary fields such as drug delivery or diagnostics, or within novel products in the established fields of paints, coatings and adhesives.

Graphical abstract: Making polymeric nanoparticles stimuli-responsive with dynamic covalent bonds

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
07 Sep 2012
Accepted
11 Oct 2012
First published
12 Oct 2012

Polym. Chem., 2013,4, 31-45

Making polymeric nanoparticles stimuli-responsive with dynamic covalent bonds

A. W. Jackson and D. A. Fulton, Polym. Chem., 2013, 4, 31 DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20727C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements