Morphology and thermodynamics of selenium-containing nanosystems: The effect of polymer stabilizers

Abstract

Nanosystems based on zero-valent selenium and biocompatible polymer stabilizers (polyvinylpyrrolidone with molecular weight (MW) М_w = (10–55) × 10³, poly-N,N,N,N-trimethylacryloyloxyethylammonium methylsulfate with М_w = (30–250) × 10³ and polyethylene glycol with М_w = (1–40) × 10³) are studied by means of static and dynamic light scattering, and the resulting data are compared. Dense spherical multimolecular nanosystems are found to be formed. Morphological and thermodynamic characteristics of selenium-containing nanosystems, depending on the nature and MW of the polymer stabilizer, are determined. It is shown that the properties of nanosystems can be adjusted by varying the molecular weight of the polymer stabilizer.