Equilibrium Swelling, Interstitial Forces, and Water Structuring in

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Equilibrium swelling, interstitial forces and water structuring in phytoglycogen nanoparticle films Michael Grossutti, Eric Bergmann, Ben Baylis, and John R Dutcher Langmuir, Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b00025 • Publication Date (Web): 28 Feb 2017 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on March 1, 2017

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Equilibrium swelling, interstitial forces and water structuring in phytoglycogen nanoparticle films Submitted to Langmuir

Michael Grossutti, Eric Bergmann, Ben Baylis and John R. Dutcher

∗

Department of Physics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1

KEYWORDS: polysaccharides, ultrathin films, ellipsometry, hydration forces, water sorption

∗

correspondence to: [email protected]

ACS Paragon Plus Environment

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ABSTRACT

Phytoglycogen is a highly-branched polymer of glucose that forms dendrimeric nanoparticles. This special structure leads to a strong interaction with water that produces exceptional properties such high water retention, low viscosity and high stability of aqueous dispersions. We have used ellipsometry at controlled relative humidity (RH) to measure the equilibrium swelling of ultrathin films of phytoglycogen, which directly probes the interstitial forces acting within the films. Comparison of the swelling behaviour of films of highly branched phytoglycogen to that of other glucose-based polysaccharides shows that chain architecture plays an important role in determining both the strong, short-range repulsion of the chains at low RH and the repulsive hydration forces at high RH. In particular, the length scale λ0 characterizing the exponentially decaying hydration forces provides a quantitative, RH-independent measure of film swelling that differs significantly for different glucose-based polysaccharides. By combining ellipsometry with infrared spectroscopy, we have determined the relationship between water structuring and interchain separation in the highly branched phytoglycogen nanoparticles, with maintenance of a high degree of water structure as the film swells significantly at high RH. These insights into the structure-hydration relationship for phytoglycogen are essential to the development of new products and technologies based on this sustainable nanomaterial.


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Introduction Hydrophilic biopolymers such as polysaccharides interact strongly with water and can swell considerably as the relative humidity RH of the surrounding environment is increased. Water uptake by polysaccharides such as hyaluronic acid is of central importance in biological systems1 and has been exploited in a variety of technological applications such as, for example, drug delivery vehicles, biosensors and tissue engineering scaffolds.2 Developing a fundamental understanding of the relationship between the structure of polysaccharides and their interaction with water is clearly essential to fully exploit their potential applications as sustainable biomaterials. The hydration of polysaccharides is considered to occur in two RH regimes. At low RH, for which the water content is low and the separation between neighbouring monomer units is small, the interaction between monomer units is dominated by very short range, hard core repulsion.3 At higher RH, the water content is increased, the monomer units are further apart, and repulsive hydration forces dominate.3-8 Hydration forces are thought to arise via a collective, weak perturbation of the many water molecules associated with the macromolecules,4 and it has been shown that they decay exponentially over distances of the order of an Ångstrom for many biological molecules including polysaccharides, lipids, proteins, and DNA.5-8 This analysis suggests that the structure of the hydration water hydrogen bond network plays an important role in determining hydration forces. For thin films, the forces acting between the molecules can be interpreted in terms of a disjoining pressure P acting across the film thickness,9 which characterizes driving forces that tend to either thin (P < 0) or thicken (P > 0) the film. Repulsive hydration forces within polysaccharide films, which tend to thicken the films, can be probed by varying the RH of the


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surrounding gas. This applies an osmotic stress3-8,10-13 that can produce disjoining pressures P that approach 109 Pa,3-6 as determined by: =

= − ln = − ln

, (1)

100

where R is the gas constant, T is the temperature, µ is the chemical potential, Vm is the molar volume of water, p is the partial pressure of water vapour, and p0 is the equilibrium vapour pressure of water.3,14 Measurement of changes in film thickness in response to changes in disjoining pressure at constant temperature allows the construction of force-distance isotherms, which quantitatively describe the interstitial forces acting within the film.3,10 Phytoglycogen is a highly branched, dendrimeric polysaccharide nanoparticle produced by certain varieties of plants. It is composed of α(1,4) linked glucose units that undergo α(1,6) branching every 10-12 monomers.15-18 The unique structure and hydrophilic character of phytoglycogen nanoparticles results in a range of fundamental and technologically important properties such as monodisperse particle size (hydrated diameter of 34.8 ± 3.2 nm, as measured using small angle neutron scattering19), high water retention, and low viscosity and high stability when dispersed in water.19,20 We have recently studied the structure and dynamics of hydration water in phytoglycogen using neutron scattering and infrared spectroscopic techniques.19,20 These measurements have helped us to understand the effectiveness of the phytoglycogen nanoparticles as a superior natural moisturizing agent in personal care formulations. It is clear that the unique hydration properties of phytoglycogen are related to the highly branched, dendrimeric structure of the compact nanoparticles. In the present study, we have achieved unique insight into the structure-hydration relationship of phytoglycogen by using the ultrathin film geometry and ellipsometry to probe short-range repulsive and hydration forces acting within the films as the RH is changed. We


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compare the equilibrium swelling behaviour of phytoglycogen to that of other polysaccharides composed of glucose monomers that differ only in their degree of branching and hydrogen bonding: dextran measured in the present study, and published data for cellulose.10 Dextrans are a class of slightly branched, comb-like, glucose-based polysaccharides consisting of α(1,6) linked D-glucose units with variable branching characteristics (linkage type, length, distribution, proportion) depending on the microbial source and production conditions.25-27 In this study, we have used dextran (MW = 200 kDa) sourced from L. mesenteroides, which has ~5% α(1,3) branching linkages.25 The α(1,3) linked branch sidechains are themselves α(1,6) linked and can be of various lengths.25-27 In contrast, cellulose is a semi-crystalline polysaccharide composed of β-1,4 linked D-glucose linear chains that form highly ordered semi-crystalline fibres via strong inter-chain hydrogen bonding.10 We find that the swelling behavior of films of highly branched phytoglycogen nanoparticles is intermediate between that of dextran and cellulose, indicating the importance of chain architecture in determining the short-range repulsive and hydration forces in polysaccharides. By correlating the pressure-distance isotherms with infrared measurements of hydration water structure, we have determined the relationship between water structuring and inter-chain separation in the highly branched phytoglycogen nanoparticles, with a high degree of water structure maintained as the film swells significantly in the low disjoining pressure regime.

Experimental Section Polysaccharide Materials and Film Preparation Monodisperse phytoglycogen nanoparticles (hydrated MW = 14.7 × 106 g/mol, hydrated diameter of 34.8 ± 3.2 nm)19 extracted and purified from sweet corn were obtained from Mirexus


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Biotechnologies Inc. Further information regarding the extraction, purification, and characterization of the phytoglycogen particles can be found in Ref 19. Dextran (MW = 200 kDa) from Leuconostoc mesenteroides was obtained from Sigma Aldrich. The substrates for the samples were Si(100) wafers (1 cm × 1 cm) with a native oxide layer that were cleaned by placing them in a UV/ozone cleaner for 20 minutes, rinsing with Milli-Q water, and drying in a dry nitrogen flow. Aqueous dispersions (~2% w/w) of either phytoglycogen nanoparticles or dextran were prepared using Milli-Q water (resistivity of 18.2 MΩ-cm). 2 to 5 drops of the phytoglycogen dispersions were spin-coated using a Headway EC101 spincoater onto the wafers at 4000 RPM using the drop-then-spin technique in an 85 ± 5% relative humidity (RH) environment, waiting 5 min between successive drops. This procedure resulted in dry phytoglycogen film thicknesses h0 that ranged from 40 to 100 nm, and the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness was ~ 1 nm over a 10 µm × 10 µm area, as measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM) (Fig. S1). Dextran films were made using single drops of the dextran solution in ambient RH, and the spin speed was varied between 3000 and 4000 RPM. This procedure resulted in dry dextran film thicknesses h0 that ranged between 50 and 70 nm, and the RMS roughness was less than 1 nm over a 10 µm × 10 µm area, as measured using AFM.

Ellipsometry and FTIR Experimental Methods Ellipsometry measurements on the phytoglycogen and dextran films were performed using a custom built, self-nulling single wavelength (λ = 632.8 nm) ellipsometer at a fixed angle of incidence (60.000° ± 0.005o).21, 22 Because of the careful design of the ellipsometer, we were able to measure the polarizer P and analyzer A angles with high precision, typically to within ±


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0.002o.21 The thickness h and refractive index n for each film were calculated using the Fresnel equations for an ideal layer model (refractive index of 3.858 – i0.152 for silicon with 2 nm thick oxide layer, refractive index of 1.52 for the “dry” polysaccharide film, and refractive index of 1 for air). Best-fit values of h and n were calculated as the averages of nulling measurements performed in two ellipsometric zones.23 Changes in the refractive index n of the polysaccharide films due to hydration were calculated using the Garnet equation, following the analysis used in ref. 10. The RH in the sample chamber was controlled by adjusting the relative flow of dry and water-saturated nitrogen gas over the films.22 The RH within the sample chamber was monitored using a Sensirion SHT71 humidity sensor. Equilibrium film thicknesses were measured for RH values between ~4 % and ~90% RH at ~25 °C. The films were allowed to equilibrate for at least 20 min at each RH value prior to data collection. FTIR spectra for dextran films and D2O exchange experiments on phytoglycogen films (Supporting Information) were collected and analyzed as described in detail in Ref 20.

Results and Discussion In Fig. 1 we show the dependence on relative humidity RH of the best-fit phytoglycogen film thickness h, the swelling ratio h/h0 (film thickness normalized with respect to the dry thickness h0 measured with RH < 4%), and the corresponding best-fit refractive index values n for five different films. The dry thickness h0 values ranged from 40 to 100 nm. The overlap between the h/h0(RH) values for the five films with considerably different values of h0 indicates that the swelling is uniform within the films for this range of h0 values. The h(RH) data for the five individual films are shown in Fig. S2. The h/h0(RH) data show a significant increase in slope at RH ≈ 70%, which is commonly observed for hydrophilic polymer films.3,10 The maximum


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Figure 1: a) Best-fit film thickness h for five different phytoglycogen films as a function of RH b) Swelling ratio h/h0 as a function of RH for the phytoglycogen films c) the corresponding bestfit values of the refractive index n as calculated using the Garnet equation.10 The dashed blue vertical lines indicate the separation between the two swelling regimes. The uncertainties in the best-fit h and n values are less than the size of the symbols.

value of the swelling ratio of h/h0(RH) ~ 1.35 at RH = 90% is comparable to that measured for other polysaccharides.3,10 The effectiveness of changing the hydration of phytoglycogen films using variable RH gas flow through the sample chamber was characterized by exposing a film, which had been prepared in H2O and subsequently dried for 30 h in dry nitrogen gas (RH < 4%), to D2O vapour (RH = 85%). This allowed the tracking of the time evolution of the O-H stretching and O-D stretching bands using infrared spectroscopy (Supporting Information). Most of the glucose hydroxyl protons and sorbed water molecules were exchanged very quickly (within 5 min), as seen by a significant decrease in O-H stretching absorbance (Fig. S3). Complete exchange occurred after 25 h with no evidence of unexchanged protons in the film, indicating that the entire interior volume of the phytoglycogen particles is accessible to solvent. As discussed above, measurements of the swelling ratio h/h0 as a function of RH can be expressed as a function of the disjoining pressure P in the film, and quantitative pressure-


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distance isotherms, corresponding to the logarithm of P versus the swelling ratio h/h0, can be obtained for the phytoglycogen films (red points in Fig. 2a). Data measured for dextran are also shown for comparison (black points in Fig. 2a). In both cases, the data are characterized by an abrupt transition from a steep slope for high disjoining pressures (P > 5 × 107 Pa), and a smaller slope for lower disjoining pressures (P < 5 × 107 Pa), corresponding to the two swelling regimes identified in Fig. 1. The large difference in slope between the high and low disjoining pressure regimes of the pressure-distance isotherm suggests different physical origins for the forces that drive film swelling. This type of behaviour has also been observed for other polysaccharides such as cellulose and hyaluronic acid.3,10,24 In Fig. 2a, we show the best fit of the data in the high disjoining pressure regime (P > 5 × 107 Pa) to a power law function of the form P(h/h0) ~ (h/h0)-m. In this regime, the films are thinnest (values of h/h0 close to 1) and the swelling behaviour is driven by strong repulsive forces between the polysaccharide chains due to molecular orbital overlap.3,10,24 The best-fit value of the exponent m = 17.4 ± 0.7 for phytoglycogen is very large, comparable to the value measured for cellulose (Table I).10 Correspondingly, phytoglycogen and cellulose have very similar maximum swelling ratios h/h0 ≈ 1.1 in this regime.10 For dextran, we measure a best-fit value of the exponent m = 14.2 ± 0.8 that is less than that for the more highly branched dendrimeric phytoglycogen (Table I). It appears that the short-range repulsion, as measured by the parameter m, is correlated to the structure of the polysaccharide chains (Table I). The dendrimeric architecture of phytoglycogen results in short-range repulsion that is between that of branched dextran and highly ordered, semi-crystalline cellulose, and is a direct indication of the high density of the polymer chains and a high degree of inter-chain interaction in the high molecular weight, small phytoglycogen particles.


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Figure 2: a) Logarithm of the disjoining pressure P in the same five phytoglycogen films (red points) as in Fig. 1 as a function of the swelling ratio h/h0. Data measured for dextran is also shown (black points). The range of dry film thicknesses h0 was between 40 and 100 nm (phytoglycogen) and 50 and 70 nm (dextran). For each data set, the blue line corresponds to the best fit of a power law function P(h/h0) ~ (h/h0)-m to the data at high disjoining pressures (P > 5 × 107 Pa); the best fit values of m are given in Table I. b) Logarithm of P in the same five phytoglycogen films (red points) as in Fig. 1 as a function of the change in distance ∆L between neighbouring monomers. Data measured for dextran is also shown (black points). For each data set, the blue line corresponds to the best fit of an exponential function (Eq. 3) to the data at low disjoining pressures (P < 5 × 107 Pa); the best-fit values of P0 and λ0 are given in Table I. In a) and b), the dashed blue line at P = 5 × 107 Pa (RH = 70%) corresponds to the transition between the two swelling regimes indicated in Fig. 1.


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At low disjoining pressures (P < 5 × 107 Pa), the water content of the film increases significantly with increasing RH (Fig. S4) corresponding to the regime in which hydration forces dominate.3,10 To quantify the hydration forces in the film, we define a distance parameter ∆L as the change in the average separation between monomer units in response to changes in RH or, equivalently, disjoining pressure P. Following Mathe et al.3, we use a cubic lattice model in which ∆L can be expressed as a function of the swelling ratio by: ∆ = ℎℎ

− 1 (2)

where a0 is the size of the glucose monomer (7.5 Å).3,10,28 It is important to emphasize that ∆L is a measure of the change in the average distance between monomer units. Because the intra-chain monomer separation will remain constant throughout the swelling process, the value of ∆L will be less than the change in inter-chain monomer separation. Nevertheless, ∆L is a useful parameter for comparing the contribution of hydration forces in phytoglycogen to that in other polysaccharides.3,10,24 The hydration pressure within the film can be described empirically by an exponential decay of the form:3-6,13 (∆) = "

#∆$ %& (3)

Table I: Best fit parameters for the high and low disjoining pressure regimes for polysaccharide films, listed in order of increasing value of m. m

P0 (107 Pa)

λ0 (Å)

Dextran*

14.2 ± 0.8

8.1 ± 0.5

1.71 ± 0.10

Phytoglycogen

17.4 ± 0.7

9.3 ± 0.8

0.89 ± 0.06

20

14

0.32

Polysaccharide

Cellulose10 †

* Dextran MW = 200 kDa, †regenerated cellulose


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where P0 is the intrinsic hydration pressure arising from the hydration forces, and λ0 is the characteristic decay length. The value of P0 can differ by orders of magnitude for different materials, whereas decay length values are generally similar and of the order of Ångstroms.5 In Fig. 2b we plot the logarithm of the disjoining pressure P as a function of ∆L for both phytoglycogen and dextran, in which the straight lines correspond to the best fit of each data set in the low disjoining pressure regime to Eq. 3. The corresponding best-fit values of P0 and λ0 are given in Table I. We note the similarity of the best-fit P0 values for all three polysaccharides listed in Table I, indicating that the internal (repulsive) pressure generated by the hydration forces in the films at small ∆L are comparable. This is reasonable, since the polysaccharides are chemically equivalent (all are composed of glucose monomers) and, by extrapolating to the highly compressed state of the films in the low RH limit, the differences in their chain architectures should be minimized. In contrast, the best-fit values of λ0 for the three polysaccharides highlight the differences between the polysaccharides: the values differ significantly, with that for phytoglycogen lying between those for the two other polysaccharides, dextran and cellulose.10 This is also a reasonable result, since swelling of the films reveals differences in the interstitial environments as determined by the different chain architectures. We find that λ0 provides a quantitative, RH-independent measure of the degree of film swelling in the hydration force regime, and indicates the importance of chain architecture in determining hydration forces in polysaccharides. To further examine the relationship between hydration forces and water structure in the phytoglycogen films, we combine the pressure-distance data from the present study with hydration water structure data from previous infrared (IR) absorption spectroscopy measurements.20 The shape of the O-H stretching IR absorption band of water is sensitive to the


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surrounding hydrogen bond environment, and is commonly interpreted in terms of simple models that attribute the IR absorption bands to sub-populations of water molecules in different hydrogen bonding environments.20,29-33 In Ref. 20, we analysed the O-H stretching band of interstitial water molecules sorbed by several different polysaccharide films and discussed the spectra in terms of a model that assigned the IR absorption bands to two general water subpopulations: network water and multimer water. Network water is defined as water molecules that are in a network of hydrogen bonds, and consists of tetrahedrally coordinated water pentamers and distorted tetrahedral water tetramers.20,29-32 In contrast, multimer water is defined as water molecules that are in a disturbed hydrogen bond network, and consist of water clusters containing two or less hydrogen bonds per water molecule.20,29-33 The hydration water structure is characterized by spectral parameters Rnetwork and Rmultimer as determined by comparing the sub-populations of water molecules in different hydrogen bonding environments. Rnetwork is the ratio of the IR absorbance arising from water pentamers in a tetrahedrally coordinated hydrogen bonding environment relative to the absorbance arising from water molecules in a distorted tetrahedral hydrogen bonding environment.20,29-32 Each of these sub-populations is associated with low density, high connectivity network water (i.e. water in a hydrogen bonded network), and Rnetwork serves as a measure of the network water hydrogen bond connectivity. Rmultimer is the ratio of the IR absorbance arising from high density, low connectivity multimer water clusters compared to that arising from the tetrahedrally coordinated network water pentamers. Multimer water consists of water molecules in a highly disturbed hydrogen bond network, with two or less hydrogen bonds per water molecule.20,29-33 Thus, Rmultimer provides a measure of the relative sub-populations of multimer water to network water. The spectral parameters Rnetwork and Rmultimer, in combination with the pressure-distance data,


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allow us to track changes in sorbed water structure with changes in disjoining pressure and interchain spacing. In Fig. 3 we plot the spectral parameters Rnetwork and Rmultimer as a function of the change in the monomer separation ∆L for both phytoglycogen and dextran. We note that the values of Rnetwork for the phytoglycogen nanoparticles shown in Fig. 3a are very large, greater than those for linear polysaccharides such as hyaluronic acid and chitosan by a factor of 2,20 indicating the overall high degree of ordering and bonding of the interstitial hydration water in phytoglycogen. As ∆L increased to 0.1 Å in the high disjoining pressure regime, a sharp increase in Rnetwork was observed, indicating that small increases in interstitial separation result in a significant increase in the order and connectivity of the interstitial water hydrogen bond network. This is consistent with a filling of the hydrogen bond network via the addition of sorbed water molecules and/or the structural rearrangement of water molecules and their corresponding H-bonds to improve the integrity of the hydrogen bond network. A very large reduction in disjoining pressure of ~3.5 × 108 Pa (Fig. 2) is associated with this very small increase in interstitial separation, which is indicative of the strong, short range repulsive forces acting in the film in the high disjoining pressure regime. The network water connectivity reaches a plateau value for larger values of ∆L within the high disjoining pressure regime. For further increases in ∆L, corresponding to the low disjoining pressure regime (∆L > 0.35 Å), Rnetwork remains essentially constant, experiencing only a slight decrease with increasing ∆L, suggesting that the stabilization provided to the water hydrogen bond network by the highly-branched phytoglycogen chain architecture decreases only slightly as the interstitial space occupied by the water molecules increases. We note that the disjoining pressure decreases by only ~3.5 × 107 Pa for 0.35 Å < ∆L < 0.8 Å, which is an order


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Figure 3: a) Rnetwork and b) Rmultimer versus the change in monomer separation ∆L for phytoglycogen20 (red) and dextran (black). See Supporting Information (Fig. S6) for dextran infrared spectra.

of magnitude smaller than that associated with the increase in ∆L from 0 to 0.1 Å. This is indicative of the weaker hydration forces within the films in the low disjoining pressure regime. For dextran, the dependence of Rnetwork on ∆L is similar to that for phytoglycogen, with several important differences. First, the values of Rnetwork are smaller than those for phytoglycogen, indicating that the water is less structured. In addition, the extent of the decrease in Rnetwork with ∆L in the hydration force driven swelling regime (low disjoining pressures) was much greater than that for phytoglycogen. This difference in behaviour suggests that the water hydrogen bond network is stabilized to a greater degree in the phytoglycogen film, and suggests that differences in water structure due to differences in chain architecture are responsible for the ~ factor of 2 difference in λ0 measured for phytoglycogen (0.89 Å) and dextran (1.71 Å). In Fig. 3b we show the dependence of the spectral parameter Rmultimer on ∆L for both phytoglycogen and dextran. For phytoglycogen, as ∆L increased to ~0.2 Å, Rmultimer increased sharply, indicating an increase in the fraction of low connectivity, high-density multimer water


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relative to high connectivity, low-density network water. This increase occurred despite the sharp increase in Rnetwork, with approximately the same relative change, within the same range of ∆L values (Fig. 3a). This means that, despite the increase in the ordering of the water in the high disjoining pressure regime, there is an even larger increase in the amount of disordered water. For further increases in ∆L, Rmultimer increased more slowly in the low disjoining pressure regime (∆L > 0.35 Å) in which hydration forces dominate the swelling behaviour of the film. By comparing Figs. 3a and b, we can see that swelling in the low disjoining pressure regime is associated with an increase in the number of high-density multimer water clusters and a decrease in network water connectivity. This result can be interpreted as the filling of small pores with dense, disordered water that drives swelling at high water content. The data for dextran show the same general trend of Rmultimer with ∆L, with the values for dextran once again less than the corresponding values for phytoglycogen. We note that the relationship between network water connectivity and interstitial separation characterized for the polysaccharides in the present study is similar to that observed previously for collagen helices.8 In this previous study, an increase in water connectivity (measured using a spectral parameter analogous to Rnetwork) was observed as the inter-axial spacing between collagen helices was decreased from 18 to 13 Å, with the associated hydration forces attributed to the rearrangement of interstitial water molecules in response to changes in the collagen inter-axial spacing.8 The similarity of the relationship between network water connectivity and interstitial separation for collagen and polysaccharides (Fig. 3), despite the much smaller values of the interstitial separations for the polysaccharides, is striking. This comparison demonstrates that the correlation between the structure of interstitial water, hydration forces and interstitial separation of chains goes beyond a single class of biopolymers such as


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protein filaments or polysaccharides, providing unique insight into the nature of hydration of hydrophilic polymers.

Conclusions Ellipsometry measurements of the equilibrium swelling of ultrathin films of phytoglycogen nanoparticles under controlled relative humidity RH conditions have revealed detailed information about repulsive short-range and hydration forces that determine the disjoining pressure acting across the films. At both high and low disjoining pressures, the swelling behaviour of phytoglycogen is intermediate between that of the slightly branched, comb-like, glucose-based dextran and that of cellulose,10 a strongly bonded, semi-crystalline glucose-based polysaccharide. At high disjoining pressures, for which the water content in the film is low, and the interchain separations are very small, strong short-range repulsive forces dominate the swelling behaviour. The large value of the power law exponent m measured for phytoglycogen, which lies between the values for dextran and cellulose, indicates the presence of strong inter-chain interactions within the highly branched, densely packed, dendrimeric architecture of the nanoparticles. In this regime of high disjoining pressures, the water content in the film is low, and the water structure parameters Rnetwork and Rmultimer have similar dependences on ∆L for both phytoglycogen and dextran. At low disjoining pressures, for which the water content in the film is high and the interchain separation is large, hydration forces dominate the swelling behaviour. The best-fit value of the hydration force decay length λ0 measured for phytoglycogen lies between the values measured for the other glucose-based polysaccharides, dextran and cellulose. We find that λ0


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provides a quantitative, RH-independent measure of the degree of film swelling in the hydration force regime, and indicates the importance of chain architecture in determining hydration forces in polysaccharides. In the low disjoining pressure regime, the water structure parameter Rnetwork for dextran decreases much more substantially with ∆L than it does for phytoglycogen, suggesting that differences in the sorbed interstitial water hydrogen bond network, arising from differences in chain architecture, may be responsible for the large (~ factor of 2) difference in the values of λ0. Our analysis provides unique insights into the relationship between the hydration dependence of repulsive short-range and hydration forces, the inter-chain separation and the high degree of water structuring within phytoglycogen nanoparticles, showing similarities and important differences with the behavior of other polysaccharides and protein filaments. This knowledge will be crucial to fully understand and exploit the unique hydration properties of this promising natural nanomaterial.

Supporting Information Eight pages of Supporting Information containing additional technical details and six supporting data figures are included. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

Potential Conflict of Interest One of the authors (J.R.D.) is a founder of Mirexus Biotechnologies.

Acknowledgements


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Mirexus Biotechnologies Inc. generously supplied the monodisperse phytoglycogen nanoparticles. This work was funded by grants from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture (OMAF) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. J.R.D. is the recipient of a Senior Canada Research Chair in Soft Matter and Biological Physics.


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TOC Graphic


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Figure 1: a) Best-fit film thickness h for five different phytoglycogen films as a function of RH b) Swelling ratio h/h0 as a function of RH for the phytoglycogen films c) the corresponding best-fit values of the refractive index n as calculated using the Garnet equation.10 The dashed blue vertical lines indicate the separation between the two swelling regimes. The uncertainties in the best-fit h and n values are less than the size of the symbols. 338x190mm (300 x 300 DPI)


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Figure 2: a) Logarithm of the disjoining pressure P in the same five phytoglycogen films (red points) as in Fig. 1 as a function of the swelling ratio h/h0. Data measured for dextran is also shown (black points). The range of dry film thicknesses h0 was between 40 and 100 nm (phytoglycogen) and 50 and 70 nm (dextran). For each data set, the blue line corresponds to the best fit of a power law function P(h/h0) ~ (h/h0)-m to the data at high disjoining pressures (P > 5 107 Pa); the best fit values of m are given in Table I. b) Logarithm of P in the same five phytoglycogen films (red points) as in Fig. 1 as a function of the change in distance ∆L between neighbouring monomers. Data measured for dextran is also shown (black points). For each data set, the blue line corresponds to the best fit of an exponential function (Eq. 3) to the data at low disjoining pressures (P < 5 107 Pa); the best-fit values of P0 and λ0 are given in Table I. In a) and b), the dashed blue line at P = 5 107 Pa (RH = 70%) corresponds to the transition between the two swelling regimes defined in Fig. 1. 338x190mm (300 x 300 DPI)


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Figure 3: a) Rnetwork and b) Rmultimer versus the change in monomer separation ∆L for phytoglycogen20 (red) and dextran (black). See Supporting Information (Fig. S6) for dextran infrared spectra. 338x190mm (300 x 300 DPI)


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