Core-shell nanoparticle microgel hybrids as smart carriers for catalysis

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Hybrids made of nanoparticles, proteins and smart colloidal core-shell microgels as carrier particles have high potential for applications in catalysis and biocatalysis. Acrylamide based microgels exhibit a so-called volume phase transition at the lower critical solution temperature granting them the name smart microgels. Besides their applications, the target particles of this project are interesting model systems to study properties of such smart system. Moreover, they are interesting model systems for the study of fundamental problems in colloid science. The project presented here aims at the synthesis and study of new core-(multi-)shell materials belonging to this class with the major target to create multifunctional systems. In more detail, the project deals with hybrids made of carriers with a core-(multi-)shell structure comprising e.g. a magnetic core covered by one or two stimulus sensitive polymer network shells. In preliminary work, we were able to show that the catalytic activity of nanoparticles embeded in core-shell particles made of two responsive polymers can be switched of completely. In the present project the inner polymer-shell will be subsequently functionalized with catalytically active nanoparticles distributed statistically inside the responsive network. This concept will also be used to produce bio-nano-polymer hybrids. For this purpose it is necessary to develop synthetic approaches allowing to chemically couple nanoparticle or enzymes to the inner polymer polymer-shell of the hybrids.