Search results for "Bioengineering"
showing 10 items of 1963 documents
Amphiphilic poly(ether urethanes) carrying associative terpyridine side groups with controlled spacing
2021
The rational design of transiently crosslinked polymer gels requires a profound understanding of how molecular and topological factors determine the mechanical and dynamic material properties. To refine so-far established structure–property relations, complementary and versatile model sytems are still a crucial prerequisiste. In this study, the synthesis of a metallo-supramolecular associating terpyridine-diol (referred to as sticker) and its incorporation into poly(ethylene glycol) (pEG) based polyurethanes (PU) with strictly alternating vs. random sequences and variable sticker spacings is described. Synergetic effects resulting from the proximity of multiple neighboring urethane and stic…
Role of Solvent Compatibility in the Phase Behavior of Binary Solutions of Weakly Associating Multivalent Polymers
2021
AbstractCondensate formation of biopolymer solutions, prominently those of various intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), is determined by “sticky” interactions between associating residues, multivalently present along the polymer backbone. Using a ternary mean field “stickers-and-spacers” model, we demonstrate that if sticker association is of the order of a few times the thermal energy, a delicate balance between specific binding and non-specific polymer-solvent interactions gives rise to a particularly rich ternary phase behavior under physiological circumstances. For a generic system represented by a solution comprising multi-associative scaffold and client polymers, the difference i…
Processing and adjusting the hydrophilicity of poly(oxymethylene) (co)polymers: nanoparticle preparation and film formation
2016
Handling the insoluble POM: the preparation of nanoparticles based on hyperbranched-linear-hyperbranched ABA triblock copolymers with variable hydrophilicity and composed of short hyperbranched polyglycerol (hbPG) as the A-blocks and linear poly(oxymethylene) (POM) as a B-block is described. The POM-hbPG-nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 190 to 250 nm were generated in a convenient process, combining the solvent evaporation process with the miniemulsion technique, a water borne handling for POM-copolymers. Furthermore, the film formation properties of the nanoparticles were investigated by deposition on silicon and subsequent sintering, which leads to films with a thickness in th…
SPM and TOF-SIMS investigation of the physical and chemical modification induced by tip writing of self-assembled monolayers
2003
Abstract The nanoelectrochemical modification of alkyl self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) obtained on hydrogenated silicon surfaces via radical-initiated reactions of 1-octadecene has been investigated. Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) showed that the modification of the organic layer occurs by applying either positive or negative biases to the tip at a threshold of about ±5 V. When the bias absolute value was ≤6 V, the height of the monolayer was only faintly modified, whereas a consistent increase in tip/sample friction force was observed, in agreement with the formation of hydrophilic moieties at the organic surface. In addition to the increase of friction, bias absolute values larger than …
Accidental Contamination of Substrates and Polymer Films by Organic Quantum Emitters.
2019
[Image: see text] We report the observation of ubiquitous contamination of dielectric substrates and poly(methyl methacrylate) matrices by organic molecules with optical transitions in the visible spectral range. Contamination sites of individual solvent-related fluorophores in thin films of poly(methyl methacrylate) constitute fluorescence hotspots with quantum emission statistics and quantum yields approaching 30% at cryogenic temperatures. Our findings not only resolve prevalent puzzles in the assignment of spectral features to various nanoemitters on bare dielectric substrates or in polymer matrices but also identify the means for the simple and cost-efficient realization of single-phot…
Chain Stiffness of Elastin-Like Polypeptides
2010
The hydrodynamic radii of a series of genetically engineered monodisperse elastin like polypeptides (ELP) was determined by dynamic light scattering in aqueous solution as function of molar mass. Utilizing the known theoretical expression for the hydrodynamic radius of wormlike chains, the Kuhn statistical segment length was determined to be lk = 2.1 nm, assuming that the length of the peptide repeat unit was b = 0.365 nm, a value derived for a coiled conformation of ELP. The resulting chain stiffness is significantly larger than previously reported by force-distance curve analysis (lk < 0.4 nm). The possible occurrence of superstructures, such as hairpins or helices, would reduce the conto…
The uptake of N-(2-hydroxypropyl)-methacrylamide based homo, random and block copolymers by human multi-drug resistant breast adenocarcinoma cells
2009
A series of well-defined, fluorescently labelled homopolymers, random and block copolymers based on N-(2-hydroxypropyl)-methacrylamide were prepared by reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT polymerization). The polydispersity indexes for all polymers were in the range of 1.2–1.3 and the number average of the molar mass (Mn) for each polymer was set to be in the range of 15–30 kDa. The cellular uptake of these polymers was investigated in the human multi-drug resistant breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF7/ADR. The uptake greatly depended on the polymer molecular mass and structure. Specifically, smaller polymers (approx. 15 kDa) were taken up by the cells at m…
Cellulose/Water: Liquid/Gas and Liquid/Liquid Phase Equilibria and Their Consistent Modeling
2007
Liquid/liquid and liquid/gas equilibria were measured for the water/cellulose system at 80 °C using three different polymer samples. For these experiments we prepared cellulose films of approximately 20−25 μm in thickness and determined their equilibrium swelling in water. Thereafter the polymer concentration in the mixed phase was increased by means of a stepwise removal of the volatile component, and the equilibrium vapor pressures were measured using an automated combination of head space sampling and gas chromatography. Contrary to the usual behavior of polymers, the swelling of cellulose increases as its molar mass becomes larger. The Flory−Huggins interaction parameters calculated fro…
The yeastWickerhamomyces anomalusAS1 secretes a multifunctional exo-β-1,3-glucanase with implications for winemaking
2014
A multifunctional exo-β-1,3-glucanase (WaExg2) was purified from the culture supernatant of the yeast Wickerhamomyces anomalus AS1. The enzyme was identified by mass spectroscopic analysis of tryptic peptide fragments and the encoding gene WaEXG2 was sequenced. The latter codes for a protein of 427 amino acids, beginning with a probable signal peptide (17 aa) for secretion. The mature protein has a molecular mass of 47 456 Da with a calculated pI of 4.84. The somewhat higher mass of the protein in SDS–PAGE might be due to bound carbohydrates. Presumptive disulphide bridges confer a high compactness to the molecule. This explains the apparent smaller molecular mass (35 kDa) of the native enz…