title: A novel approach to controlled self-assembly of pH-responsive thermosensitive homopolymer polyelectrolytes into stable nanoparticles.
abstract: This review addresses the recent research progress in introducing and elaborating a novel approach to controlled polymer self-assembly into stable nanoparticles using pH-responsive thermosensitive homopolymer polyelectrolytes. Interesting aspect of this approach is that stable polymeric nanoparticles are formed from homopolymers of one type only and without any assembly-triggering additives. The process of their formation can be monitored online e.g. by light scattering and particle size can be finely custom tuned. Obtained nanoparticles have interesting properties and are very stable over long periods of time and over a broad range of salt concentrations including physiological conditions. Much effort was devoted not only to finding optimum experimental protocols and to characterizing resulting nanoparticles in detail, but also to understanding physical processes behind these successful protocols.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 47, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia. Electronic address: marsed@saske.sk.
authors.forename: Marián
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sedlák
keywords: Nanoparticle; Poly(carboxylic acid); Polyelectrolyte; Self-assembly; Thermosensitive; pH-responsive