A Concentration-Dependent Insulin Immobilization Behavior of Alkyl-Modified Silica Vesicles: The Impact of Alkyl Chain Length

The insulin immobilization behaviors of silica vesicles (SV) before and after modification with hydrophobic alkyl -C8 and -C18 groups have been studied and correlated to the grafted alkyl chain length. In order to minimize the influence from the other structural parameters, monolayered -C8 or -C18 groups are grafted onto SV with controlled density. The insulin immobilization capacity of SV is dependent on the initial insulin concentrations (IIC). At high IIC (2.6–3.0 mg/mL), the trend of insulin immobilization capacity of SV is SV-OH > SV-C8 > SV-C18, which is determined mainly by the surface area of SV. At medium IIC (0.6–1.9 mg/mL), the trend changes to SV-C8 ≥ SV-C18 > SV-OH as both the surface area and alkyl chain length contribute to the insulin immobilization. At an extremely low IIC, the hydrophobic–hydrophobic interaction between the alkyl group and insulin molecules plays the most significant role. Consequently, SV-C18 with longer alkyl groups and the highest hydrophobicity show the best insulin enrichment performance compared to SV-C8 and SV-OH, as evidenced by an insulin detection limit of 0.001 ng/mL in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and 0.05 ng/mL in artficial urine determined by mass spectrometry (MS).