Carboxybetaine Polymer‐Protected Gold Nanoparticles: High Dispersion Stability and Resistance against Non‐Specific Adsorption of Proteins

Abstract

Abstract 1‐Carboxy‐ N , N ‐dimethyl‐ N ‐(2′‐methacryloyloxyethyl)methanaminium inner salt (CMB) was polymerized by ATRP initiated with a disulfide difunctionalized by 2‐bromoisobutyryl groups. The disulfide‐carrying carboxybetaine polymer (DT‐PCMB) was used for the preparation of PCMB‐protected gold nanoparticles (PCMB‐AuNPs) obtained by the reduction of hydrogen tetrachloroaurate (HAuCl 4 ) in the presence of the DT‐PCMB of different molecular weights at different molar ratios of DT‐PCMB and HAuCl 4 . The sizes of gold cores in the PCMB‐AuNPs tended to increase upon decreasing concentration and molecular weight of the DT‐PCMB. The PCMB‐AuNPs possessed a high dispersion stability, and showed a resistance against non‐specific adsorption of proteins (bovine serum albumin, human serum albumin, lysozyme, and cytochrome c). Therefore, DT‐PCMB is a quite suitable stabilizing ligand to prepare inert AuNPs and the PCMB‐AuNPs will be useful in biomedical applications. magnified image