Nanohybrid polymer brushes on silica for bioseparation

Abstract

Boronic acid based affinity materials are of great importance for effective enrichment of biomolecules containing a cis-diol structure, for example glycoproteins. In this work, we developed a new pH- and temperature-responsive boronate affinity material for effective separation of glycoproteins. A nanohybrid material composed of silica cores and flexible polymer brushes, denoted as Si@poly(NIPAm-co-GMA)@APBA, was prepared via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) in combination with Cu(I)-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) click reaction. The size, morphology and composition of the obtained nanohybrid were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), elemental analysis and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The density of polymer brushes on the surface of silica nanoparticles was determined to be 0.7 molecules per nm². The maximum binding capacities of the nanohybrid Si@poly(NIPAm-co-GMA)@APBA for ovalbumin (OVA) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were determined to be 87.6 mg g⁻¹ and 22.8 mg g⁻¹, respectively. Glycoprotein binding on the nanohybrid could be controlled by varying the pH of the binding buffer. By increasing the temperature from 20 °C to 35 °C, glycoprotein binding onto the nanohybrid was decreased. This new pH- and temperature-responsive nanohybrid will be useful for a number of biotechnological and biomedical applications, for example, for protein separation and drug delivery.