Preparation and Investigation of Functional PEGylated Chitosan Nanoparticles

doi:10.19894/j.issn.1000-0518.240425

Chinese Journal of Applied Chemistry ›› 2025, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 386-395.DOI: 10.19894/j.issn.1000-0518.240425

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Preparation and Investigation of Functional PEGylated Chitosan Nanoparticles

Ju-Ying XIAO¹^,², Xia ZHAO¹, Yuan LIN¹(), Zhao-Hui SU¹^,²()

^1.State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry，Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry，Chinese Academy of Sciences，Changchun 130022，China
^2.School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering University of Science and Technology of China，Hefei 230026，China

Received:2024-12-24 Accepted:2025-01-21 Published:2025-03-01 Online:2025-04-11
Contact: Yuan LIN,Zhao-Hui SU
About author:linyuan@ciac.ac.cn
Supported by:
the National Natural Science Foundation of China(22175170)

Abstract

Abstract:

In the present study， Carboxyl and azide terminated polyethylene （N₃-PEG-COOH） with different relative molecular mass of 500 and 1000 were grafted onto the chitosan （CS） backbones through amide reaction， followed by the preparation of chitosan-polyethylene glycol （CS-PEG） nanoparticles with controllable size and zeta potential via sodium tripolyphosphate （TPP） ionotropic gelation. Characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer （FT-IR）， nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy （NMR） and thermal gravimetric analyzer （TGA） confirmed the successful incorporation of PEG， and the structures of the nanoparticles were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy （TEM） and nanoparticle size and zeta potential analyzer. The results demonstrated that when m（CS）∶m（TPP） is 3.33∶1， CS nanoparticles show excellent structural stability. Based on this， increasing the PEG grafting density further reduces the particle size and surface potential of CS-PEG nanoparticles. Moreover， the chemical reactivity of azide in CS-PEG nanoparticles was proved by the click reaction with alkyne-modified fluorescent molelule （5-FAM-alkyne）， showing their potential as paltform for target drug delivery， fluorescent probes and other biomedical applications.

Key words: Chitosan, Nanoparticles, Click reaction, Ionotropic gelation, Polymer fluorescent probes

CLC Number:

O636

Ju-Ying XIAO, Xia ZHAO, Yuan LIN, Zhao-Hui SU. Preparation and Investigation of Functional PEGylated Chitosan Nanoparticles[J]. Chinese Journal of Applied Chemistry, 2025, 42(3): 386-395.

Figures/Tables 9

Fig.1 （A） Amidation between CS and N3-PEG-COOH；（B） Preparation of CS-PEG nanoparticles via TPP ionotropic gelation crosslinking；（C） Click chemistry reaction between CS-PEG nanoparticles and fluorescent molecules

Fig.2 FT-IR spectra of （A） CS-PEG 500 and （B） CS-PEG 1000 at different feed ratios

Fig.3 1H NMR spectra of （A） CS，（B） CS-PEG 500 and （C） CS-PEG 1000

Table 1 GW and yield of CS-PEG at different feed ratios

Sample	n（CS-NH₂）∶n（PEG-COOH）	GW/%	Yield/%
CS-PEG 51 ^a CS-PEG 35 ^a CS-PEG 21 ^a	1∶1	51.0	49.6
	5∶1	34.9	93.9
	10∶1	20.9	95.5
CS-PEG 77 ^b CS-PEG 36 ^b CS-PEG 35 ^b	1∶1	77.0	60.0
	5∶1	35.5	70.1
	10∶1	25.3	81.5

Fig.4 Thermogravimetric analysis of CS and CS-PEG at different feed ratios

Fig.5 Variation in particle size and PDI of CS/TPP nanoparticles under different preparation conditions

Table.2 The physicochemical properties of CS-PEG/TPP nanoparticles

	Size/nm	PDI	ζ-potential/mV
CS-PEG 51	95.2±17.3	0.30±0.08	6.8±1.5
CS-PEG 35	114.8±4.7	0.27±0.06	16.3±4.7
CS-PEG 21	170.9±19.1	0.29±0.05	24.8±0.6
CS-PEG 77	108.7±3.2	0.45±0.01	4.3±0.6
CS-PEG 36	116.4±5.0	0.55±0.09	6.6±0.4
CS-PEG 26	135.0±2.6	0.40±0.02	24.6±0.9

Fig.6 TEM of CS-PEG 35 nanoparticles at different scales

Fig.7 （A） FT-IR spectra，（B） fluorescence spectra and （C） fluorescence spectra at different concentrations of CS-PEG-FAM

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Preparation and Investigation of Functional PEGylated Chitosan Nanoparticles

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