Tunable core–shell particles generated from smart water-soluble chitosan seeds

• A chain-like strategy to create various core–shell particles is presented.
• Water-soluble chitosan is employed as smart cores.
• Everything obtained at each stage has its individual structure and property.

A chain-like route was presented to create various core–shell particles with soft, aqueous or inorganic cores respectively. Water-soluble chitosan (WSC) gel particles were obtained through gelating the aqueous WSC solution of 0.02 g/mL at its isoelectric point. Then, polyelectrolyte complexes were formed and surrounded on the outer surfaces of WSC gel particles by immersing the particles in 2 wt% aqueous sodium alginate. Soft WSC cores in these core–shell particles disappeared after maintaining the particles in 1 M HCl for 6 h. The cores of obtained particles at this step became aqueous, and could be further transformed into inorganic ones via contacting the particles with copper sulfate and sodium sulfide aqueous solutions successively. The composition of the shell was verified with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The formation of various core–shell particles was confirmed with digital photographic observation, thermogravimetric and fluorescence analyses. The whole process was a chain-like one and was able to stop at any stage to harvest a corresponding target.