Using Molecular Probe Adsorption to Characterize the Nanoparticle Corona Phase and Molecular Recognition

Area of Science:

• Nanotechnology
• Materials Science
• Surface Chemistry

Background:

• The nanoparticle corona, a layer of molecules on nanoparticle surfaces, is crucial for applications like catalysis and sensing.
• Characterizing the corona's adsorbed surface area is challenging with existing particle sizing methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To advance the molecular probe adsorption (MPA) technique for measuring nanoparticle corona surface area.
• To establish structure-property relationships for corona phases and their interactions.
• To demonstrate MPA as a predictive tool for nanoparticle and nanosensor design.

Main Methods:

• Utilized molecular probe adsorption (MPA) with a fluorescent probe quenched upon adsorption.
• Evaluated 20 new carbon nanotube (CNT) corona phases and five previously studied constructs.
• Correlated polymer stiffness (persistence length) with CNT surface coverage.

Main Results:

• Polymer stiffness was found to correlate with corona phase surface coverage on CNTs.
• Differing probe-corona interactions were observed between single-stranded DNA and high-molecular-weight polymers.
• MPA-derived surface areas complemented in silico calculations to predict phytohormone binding affinities.

Conclusions:

• MPA is an effective method for quantifying nanoparticle corona surface area.
• Polymer stiffness is a key design criterion for controlling corona phase surface coverage.
• MPA serves as a predictive tool for designing nanoparticle and nanosensor applications.