Synthesis of Gold Nanorods /[PHEMA-b-PVEA] Nanocomposite and Investigation of Drug Delivery application

Theranostic nanoparticles with multifunctional ability have been emerging as a new platform forbiomedical applications such as imaging, sensing and drug delivery. Despite gold nanorods (GNRs)being an excellent nanosource with multifunctional versatility, they have certain limitations inbiomedical applications, which include surfactant toxicity, biological stability and controlled drug releasekinetics. Hence, we fabricated thiol-end caped diblock copolymer [poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-bpoly[(N-4-vinylbenzyl),N,N-diethylamine)]; [PHEMA-b-PVEA] encapsulated gold nanorods (GNRs) viaRAFT polymerization techniques. The nanocomposites formed were named GNRs@polymer. Furthermore,the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) was encapsulated into the GNRs@ polymer by the electrostaticforce. pH responsive drug release ability of the synthesized biocompatible nanocomposite were alsoinvestigated .Also the success of coating was verified by fourier transform infrared (FTIR), zeta potential,transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), proton nuclear magneticresonance (1H NMR) spectroscopies , gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis and UV-visspectroscopy.

Keywords:

RAFT polymerization , Gold nanorods , Anti-cancer drug doxorubicin