US patent 7501180 - Nanoparticles confined in polyelectrolytes

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7501180.html

This patent from Vive Nano teaches a stabilizer for nanoparticles to minimized undesired chemical reactions between nanoparticle composites and the environment. Claim 1 reads:

1. A nanoparticle composite comprising a nanoparticle surrounded within a layer of a plurality of collapsed polymeric polyelectrolyte stabilizing moieties, wherein the nanoparticle composite has a mean diameter in the range of between about 1 nm to about 100 nm.