Preparation and characterization of pH-responsive metal-polyphenol structure coated nanoparticles

In this paper, tannic acid (TA) and Fe3+ were added to form a layer of metal-polyphenol network structure on the surface of the nanoparticles which were fabricated by zein and carbon quantum dots (CQDs) encapsulating phlorotannins (PTN). pH-Responsive nanoparticles were prepared successfully (zein-PTN-CQDs-FeIII). Further, the formation of composite nanoparticles was confirmed by a series of characterization methods. The zeta-potential and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy data proved that electrostatic interaction and hydrogen bonding are dominant forces to form nanoparticles. The encapsulation efficiency (EE) revealed that metal-polyphenol network structure could improve the EE of PTN. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry experiment indicated the thermal stability of zein-PTN-CQDs-FeIII nanoparticles increased because of metal-polyphenol network structure. The pH-responsive nanoparticles greatly increased the release rate of active substances and achieved targeted release. (c) 2024 Beijing Academy of Food Sciences. Publishing services by Tsinghua University Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).