Analytical Ultracentrifugation Of Polymers And Nanoparticles PDF Download

Pharmapolymers, colloids, and self-assembled systems for biomedical purposes have gained significant importance in the last decades. Besides innovative synthesis routes and formulation techniques, the characterization of these multicomponent systems is of great importance to obtain an insight into their physicochemical properties. As presented in this thesis, analytical ultracentrifugation with multi-detection represents a characterization tool with great potential for analyzing macromolecules and polymer-based nanocarriers in solution. Besides analytical ultracentrifugation, asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation coupled to a multi-angle laser light scattering detector can be utilized to determine essential properties such as particle sizes or molar masses of macromolecules. In this thesis, methods of analytical ultracentrifugation were developed to analyze polymeric nanocarriers. The results were compared to well-established orthogonal techniques such as asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation coupled to a light scattering detector and standard dynamic light scattering. Thereby, different polymeric multicomponent systems, including nanoparticles, polyplexes, micelles, and bioconjugates were studied. These investigations delivered information such as the colocalization of multiple components, i. e., drug, as well as degradation and drug release studies under various conditions. In particular, studies in human serum and at body temperature are of great importance before in vivo experiments are performed. The presented results will allow to overcome current analytical challenges in the characterization of such multicomponent systems for life science applications and boost the synthetic / formulation improvements due to a deep physicochemical understanding of the systems.