Poly(glycidyl methacrylate)/silver nanocomposite microspheres as a radioiodine scavenger: Electrophoretic characterisation of carboxyl- and amine-modified particles

• Monodisperse PGMA particles carrying COOH or NH2 groups were developed.
• Electrophoretic mobilities and ζ potential values of the particles were determined.
• Poly(glycidyl methacrylate)/Ag nanocomposite microspheres were prepared.
• The composite microspheres were used as efficient radioiodine scavenger.

Silver nanoparticles possess potent antibacterial properties and have extremely high affinities to radioiodine. For several applications, it is essential to anchor the nanoparticles to microparticles or solid surfaces to make them insoluble while retaining their unique properties. This current work is related to the design of anionic and cationic macroporous polymer microspheres based on poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) obtained using a multistep swelling polymerisation. According to scanning electron microscopy, the microspheres were monodisperse in size and 4.2 μm in diameter. The presence of the carboxyl and amino groups in the PGMA-COOH and PGMA-NH2 microspheres was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) and pressure-assisted capillary electrophoresis (PACE) were used to study the electrophoretic behaviour of both types of microparticles. The electrophoretic mobility of the microparticles was changed into ζ potential using Smoluchowski modelling. Finally, silver-containing microspheres were prepared by reducing silver nitrate in the presence of the microspheres, and they proved effective for scavenging radioiodide ions from a model medium.

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