Search results for "Macro"

Estimation of pKa shifts in weak polyacids using a simple molecular model: effects of strong polybases, hydrogen bonding and divalent counterion bind…

2004

Abstract The pKa values of ionizable groups in macromolecules can be significantly different than those of the isolated groups in solution. We have estimated theoretically the changes in the dissociation constant of a weak acid (a) in the vicinity of another ionizable group (b) on the basis of the theoretical approach by Hill (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 78 (1956) 3330) for matching pairs of interacting sites on two large molecules. Three cases are considered for group b: the strong base, the same weak acid as group a with hydrogen bonding between them, and the same weak acid as group a with divalent counterion binding. The pKa shifts are evaluated in each case as a function of the interaction energy…

Functional end groups for polymers prepared using ring-opening metathesis polymerization.

2011

The precise placement of functional groups on the chain-ends of macromolecules is a major focus of polymer research. Most common living polymerization techniques offer specific methods of end-functionalization governed by the active propagating species and the kinetics of the polymerization reaction. Ring-opening metathesis polymerization has established itself as one of the most functional-group-tolerant living polymerization techniques known, but this tolerance has limited the number of available functionalization reactions. Metathesis chemists have therefore been required to develop a variety of end-functionalizations, adapting each of them to the reactivity scheme of the particular cata…

Imaging of Keratin Dynamics during the Cell Cycle and in Response to Phosphatase Inhibition

2004

Publisher Summary The characterization and development of autofluorescent proteins, most prominently of the green florescent protein, have provided tools to label cellular structures such that they can be examined in living cells. This chapter highlights the potential of live cell imaging in providing novel and unprecedented insights into the dynamic organization of the keratin cytoskeleton and outlines the important aspects of this method. The live cell imaging experiments suggest that the driving force behind the vectorial and dynamic keratin distribution patterns relies both on microtubules and microfilaments and their associated factors. The studies on the dynamics of the keratin cytosk…

Numerical model for composite material with polymer matrix reinforced by carbon nanotubes

2008

Due to the high stiffness and strength, as well as their ability to act as conductors, carbon nanotubes are under intense investigation as fillers in polymeric materials. The nature of the carbon nanotube/polymer bonding and the curvature of the carbon nanotubes within the polymer have arisen as particular factors in the efficacy of the carbon nanotubes to actually provide any enhanced stiffness or strength to the nanocomposite. Here the effects of carbon nanotube curvature and interface interaction with the matrix on the nanocomposite stiffness are investigated using nanomechanical analysis. In particular, the effects of poor bonding and thus poor shear lag load transfer to the carbon nano…

Interaction in POSS-poly(ethylene-co-acrylic acid) nanocomposites

2013

Use of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) in polymer-based nanocomposites is promising for the design of high-performance materials for several applications. In this study, nanocomposites based on ethylene-acrylic acid (EAA) copolymer and POSS molecules were prepared by melt mixing. In particular, partial cage POSS with different pendent organic groups was used to investigate the interaction between the –OH groups of POSS and the acrylic functionalities of the matrix. All nanocomposites were characterized by mechanical, rheological, thermal and spectroscopic analyses. In addition, PE-POSS compounds were prepared under the same processing conditions for sake of comparison. The POSS …

New perspectives for the design of molecular actuators: thermally induced collapse of single macromolecules from cylindrical brushes to spheres.

2004

Recent advances on application of peptide nucleic acids as a bioreceptor in biosensors development

2019

Abstract The analogs of DNA are unique biomedical tools that are broadly utilized to develop different types of biosensors. Peptide nucleic acids (PNA) are an individual and notable class of nucleic acid analogs due to their unique, novel physicochemical and biochemical characteristics, stability and resistance to nuclease and protease enzymes, significant interactions with complementary strands and remarkable hybridization attributes. Therefore, they are employed in the preparation and fabrication of various types of functional biosensors. In other words, immobilization of PNA as an appropriate diagnostic probe on the surface of electrochemical and optical converters lead to the fabricatio…

Photoautotrophic community changes in Lagunillo del Tejo (Spain) in response to lake level fluctuation: Two centuries of sedimentary pigment records

2009

Lagunillo del Tejo is a small doline lake in a karstic region of the Iberian Ranges (central-eastern Spain) that undergoes significant lake level fluctuation in response to changing aquifer influxes. In order to assess changes in the primary producer community in the lake over the last two centuries and to elucidate whether these were conditioned by climatic variability, photosynthetic pigments and their derivatives were extracted from the sediments and the data analysed using multivariate statistical techniques. Quantitative variations in total pigment concentrations through the sedimentary sequence are considered a result of changes in sedimentation rate, largely due to lake level fluctua…

Determining the selective impregnation of waterlogged archaeological woods with poly(ethylene) glycols mixtures by differential scanning calorimetry

2012

The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique was demonstrated to be a reliable and fast tool for the investigation of the selective impregnation of archaeological woods with poly(ethylene) glycols (PEGs) mixtures. To this aim, waterlogged archaeological woods were impregnated by using aqueous mixtures of PEG 4000 and PEG 400 as well as mixtures of these polymers in the melt state. The efficiency of the treatments was also estimated by determining the total consolidant content entrapped into the cavities of degraded wood by means of DSC and thermogravimetry.

Collapse of Cylindrical Brushes with 2-Isopropyloxazoline Side Chains Close to the Phase Boundary

2013

A high-molar-mass cylindrical brush polymer with a main chain degree of polymerization of Pw = 1047 is synthesized by free-radical polymerization of a poly-2-isopropyloxazoline macromonomer with Pn = 28. The polymerization is conducted above the lower phase transition temperature of the macromonomer, i.e., in the phase-separated regime, which provides a sufficiently concentrated macromonomer phase mandatory to obtain high-molar-mass cylindrical brushes. Upon heating to the phase transition temperature, the hydrodynamic radius is observed to shrink from 34 to 27 nm. Further increase in temperature resulted in aggregated chains which were observed to coexist with single chains until eventuall…