A versatile method for the preparation of poly-acrylamide derivative functionalized thermo-responsive gold nanoparticles

Abstract

In this work, we present a facile in situ strategy for synthesis of thermo-responsive gold nanoparticles (GNPs) at room temperature. By using the RAFT polymerization methods, thermo-responsive polymer chains possessing trithiocarbonate groups have been synthesized which can be split into two chains and can produce a thiol end-group by NaOH. Then the thiol end-group polymer chains can act as anchors to capture the Au(III) ions in aqueous solution to form thermo-responsive GNPs. The thermo-responsive GNPs synthesized by the proposed method exhibited a reversible, clear–opaque transition in solution between 35 °C and 60 °C. It is conjectured that this strategy possesses the virtues including in situ, “green”, universal and tailored without a tedious reducing procedure using any toxic reducing agents. Further, the thermo-responsive GNPs have been applied for the effective analysis of cysteine in urine samples.