Search results for "Demixing"

Nano-demixing as a novel strategy for magnetic field responsive systems: the case of dibutyl phosphate/bis(2-ethylhexyl)amine systems

2016

Pure surfactant liquids and their binary mixtures, owing to the amphiphilic nature of the molecules involved, can exhibit nano-segregation and peculiar transport properties. The possibility of opportunely choosing the amphiphiles should lead to the formation of anisotropic aggregates that can be oriented by an external factor like a magnetic field. In this case some properties, like optical birefringence, can be induced by the use of a magnetic field. Dynamic features of dibutyl phosphate (DBP)/bis(2-ethylhexyl)amine (BEEA) mixtures have been investigated by FT-IR, NMR, rheometry, Brillouin scattering, and magnetically-induced birefringence measurements as a function of the BEEA mole fracti…

From capillary condensation to interface localization transitions in colloid-polymer mixtures confined in thin-film geometry.

2008

Monte Carlo simulations of the Asakura-Oosawa (AO) model for colloid-polymer mixtures confined between two parallel repulsive structureless walls are presented and analyzed in the light of current theories on capillary condensation and interface localization transitions. Choosing a polymer to colloid size ratio of q=0.8 and studying ultrathin films in the range of D=3 to D=10 colloid diameters thickness, grand canonical Monte Carlo methods are used; phase transitions are analyzed via finite size scaling, as in previous work on bulk systems and under confinement between identical types of walls. Unlike the latter work, inequivalent walls are used here: while the left wall has a hard-core rep…

Protein crystallization: universal thermodynamic vs. specific effects of PEG

2008

The interest of nucleation of protein crystals and aggregates (including oligomerization) spans from basic physics theory all the way to biophysics, nanophysics, clinical sciences, biotechnologies, food technologies and polymer–solvent interactions. Understanding nucleation within a theoretical framework capable of providing quantitative predictions and control of nucleation rates, or even the very occurrence of crystallization, is a long-sought goal of remarkable relevance to each of the above fields. A large amount of work has been aimed at such goal, but success has been so far rather limited. Work at our laboratory has more recently highlighted a direct link between nucleation rates and…

PREDICTION OF THERMODYNAMIC INSTABILITIES OF PROTEIN SOLUTIONS FROM SIMPLE PROTEIN-PROTEIN INTERACTIONS

2013

Statistical thermodynamics of protein solutions is often studied in terms of simple, microscopic models of particles interacting via pairwise potentials. Such modelling can reproduce the short range structure of protein solutions at equilibrium and predict thermodynamics instabilities of these systems. We introduce a square well model of effective protein-protein interaction that embeds the solvent's action. We modify an existing model [45] by considering a well depth having an explicit dependence on temperature, i.e. an explicit free energy character, thus encompassing the statistically relevant configurations of solvent molecules around proteins. We choose protein solutions exhibiting dem…

Discussion on "Protein crystallization: universal thermodynamic vs. specific effects of PEG"

2008

Light-induced demixing of hole or electron transporting moieties

2004

This paper describes the synthesis of two tri-phenylamine monomers (hole conducting) and one triazine monomer (electron conducting) which differ in their copolymerization parameters because of their styrene and vinyl ester nature. A blend of triphenylamine monomer and poly-(ethylene glycol) and mixtures of both types of monomers (triphepylamine and triazine) were illuminated through a line mask, creating laterally modulated radicals, thus leading to lateral demixing. The experiments with mixtures of triphenylamine and triazine monomers show that the concentration of p- or n-type polymers can be modulated laterally in a controlled way.