Phenylboronic
acid-containing nanomaterials have found applications in various fields
including biomedical engineering due to their unique stimuli-responsive
characteristics. Contrary to the many reports on spherical nanoparticles,
we are interested in nanostructures with different morphology which
could potentially exhibit additional morphology-related effects. Here,
phenylboronic acid-containing nanoparticles (PBANPs) in the size range
of 80–250 nm in diameter were synthesized via aqueous dispersion
polymerization of <i>N</i>-acryloyl-3-aminophenylboronic
acid (PBAAM) using methoxy poly(ethylene glycol) acrylamide (PEGAM)
as a polymerizable dispersant and <i>N</i>,<i>N</i>′-methylenebis(acrylamide) (MBAM) as a cross-linker. Microscopic
analysis revealed that PBANPs were clusters, composed of smaller primary
nanoparticles of ∼20 nm in diameter, possessing a framboidal
morphology. The size of the PBANPs was significantly affected by the
concentrations of PBAAM and PEGAM. Furthermore, PBANPs showed reversible
swelling behavior in response to the changes in pH and fructose concentration.
PBANPs could be used for fructose detection by the PBA-Alizarin Red
S displacement assay. The unique framboidal morphology together with
the characteristic properties of phenylboronic acid groups may be
useful in biosensing applications