Polybetaine nanobrushes are widely used as inert platforms for label-free biosensing due to their resistance to nonspecific interactions. Despite being considered cationic or electrically neutral, polybetaines can exhibit a negative zeta potential (ZP) at pHs above their isoelectric point (pI). To clarify whether negative zeta potential effectively contributes to surface interactions, we examined three types of nanobrushes deposited on a planar gold substrate: two polybetaines: poly(carboxybetaine methacrylamide) (pCBMAA) and poly(sulfobetaine methacrylamide) (pSBMAA) and hydrophilic poly[N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide] (pHPMAA), which carries no ionic group. All three brushes exhibit a well-defined pI and negative surface ZP at pHs above their pI. The pH dependence of the interactions of these brushes with anionic dextran sulfate (DS) and cationic poly[(N-trimethylammonium)ethyl methacrylate] (PTMAEMA) was monitored by infrared reflection spectroscopies (infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), grazing angle attenuated total reflectance (GAATR)). DS adsorbs to pCBMAA strongly and only weakly to pSBMAA at pHs below their pI but can adsorb slightly to both polybetaines even at pHs above their pI. This is due to the displacement of their carboxylate or sulfo groups from the interaction with the quaternary ammonium cation by the DS sulfate groups. However, DS does not adsorb to pHPMAA at any pH, and PTMAEMA does not adsorb to any of the brushes, regardless of pH. These findings highlight that zeta potential determinations alone may not be sufficient to predict electrostatic interactions as the apparent negative charge does not necessarily translate into a functional surface charge influencing macromolecular interactions.

• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Using coarse-grained dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) with explicit electrostatics, we performed (i) an extensive series of simulations of the electrostatic co-assembly of asymmetric oppositely charged copolymers composed of one (either positively or negatively charged) polyelectrolyte (PE) block A and one water-soluble block B and (ii) studied the solubilization of positively charged porphyrin derivatives (P+) in the interpolyelectrolyte complex (IPEC) cores of co-assembled nanoparticles. We studied the stoichiometric mixtures of 137 A10+B25 and 137 A10-B25 chains with moderately hydrophobic A blocks (DPD interaction parameter aAS=35) and hydrophilic B blocks (aBS=25) with 10 to 120 P+ added (aPS=39). The P+ interactions with other components were set to match literature information on their limited solubility and aggregation behavior. The study shows that the moderately soluble P+ molecules easily solubilize in IPEC cores, where they partly replace PE+ and electrostatically crosslink PE- blocks. As the large P+ rings are apt to aggregate, P+ molecules aggregate in IPEC cores. The aggregation, which starts at very low loadings, is promoted by increasing the number of P+ in the mixture. The positively charged copolymers repelled from the central part of IPEC core partially concentrate at the core-shell interface and partially escape into bulk solvent depending on the amount of P+ in the mixture and on their association number, AS. If AS is lower than the ensemble average ⟨AS⟩n, the copolymer chains released from IPEC preferentially concentrate at the core-shell interface, thus increasing AS, which approaches ⟨AS⟩n. If AS>⟨AS⟩n, they escape into the bulk solvent.

• Keywords
• IPEC, computer simulations, electrostatic co-assembly, porphyrin, solubilization,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH