PMSE 6 |
| Fluorescent silica and silsesquioxane nanoparticles have potential medical, membrane and photonics applications. In this work, monodisperse fluorescent nanoparticles were prepared based on silica and organic bridged polysilsesquioxane architectures for testing membranes for the presence of defects. Bridged polysilsesquioxanes allow nanoparticles to prepared with the dyes integrated into the polymeric architecture so as to eliminate leaching of the dyes. Our first silica nanoparticles were prepared under alkaline conditions from tetraethoxysilane and surface functionalized with fluorescent dyes bearing reactive alkoxysilane groups. Nearly monodisperse particles were prepared at different sizes between 20-1000 nanometers in diameter. To reduce the chance of leaching, fluorescent nanoparticles were also prepared by copolymerizing tetraethoxysilane with low concentrations of bridged silsesquioxane monomers bearing fluorescent dye bridging groups. It was also possible to prepare more hydrophobic fluorescent nanoparticles that were based entirely on silsesquioxane monomers by copolymerizing the fluorescent monomers with non-fluorescent bridged monomers. |
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Synthesis and Self-Assembly Approaches to Polymer-Inorganic Hybrid Nanoparticles
8:30 AM-12:05 PM, Sunday, April 6, 2008 Hilton New Orleans Riverside -- Grand Salon 24, Oral
Division of Polymeric Materials: Science & Engineering |