Search results for "surface"

Carbohydrate nanocarriers in biomedical applications: functionalization and construction

2015

The specific targeting of either tumor cells or immune cells in vivo by carefully designed and appropriately surface-functionalized nanocarriers may become an effective therapeutic treatment for a variety of diseases. Carbohydrates, which are prominent biomolecules, have shown their outstanding ability in balancing the biocompatibility, stability, biodegradability, and functionality of nanocarriers. The recent applications of sugar (mono/oligosaccharides and/or polysaccharides) for the development of nanomedicines are summarized in this review, including the application of carbohydrates for the surface-functionalization of various nanocarriers and for the construction of the nanocarrier its…

Responses to salt stress in the halophyte Plantago crassifolia (Plantaginaceae)

2004

Abstract General responses to salt stress have been investigated in the halophyte Plantago crassifolia. Seed germination was strongly inhibited by NaCl, although seed viability and germination capacity were not affected by salt pre-treatments. A concentration-dependent inhibition of plant growth was observed in the presence of NaCl, which was accompanied by the accumulation of Na+ ions in the leaves, as determined by cation exchange HPLC. A 20-fold increase of proline content in leaves was observed when plants were treated with 500 m m NaCl, suggesting a protective role against high salinity stress for this amino acid, whose possible mechanism of action is discussed.

Polymer Selection and Cell Design for Electric-Vehicle Supercapacitors

2000

Supercapacitors are devices for applications requiring high operating power levels, such as secondary power sources in electric vehicles (EVs) to provide peak power for acceleration and hill climbing. While electronically conducting polymers yield different redox supercapacitor configurations, devices with the n-doped polymer as the negative electrode and the p-doped polymer as the positive one are the most promising for EV applications. Indeed, this type of supercapacitor has a high operating potential, is able to deliver all the doping charge and, when charged, has both electrodes in the conducting (p- and n-doped) states. This study reports selection criteria for polymer materials and ce…

Investigation of Polyol Adsorption on Ru, Pd, and Re Using vdW Density Functionals

2015

Biomass-based feedstocks are often oxygenated compounds characterized by large amounts of hydroxyls. As an example, polyols and sugar alcohols are largely employed as reactants for different chemical catalytic transformations such as oxidation, dehydration, and hydrodeoxigenation, which usually occur in aqueous medium. With the goal of gaining new insights into processes that could be industrially relevant, the adsorption of the OH groups on metal surfaces and in the presence of water has to be correctly reproduced and described, within a chosen theoretical framework. Toward this goal, several tests were performed on the catalytically relevant metal Ru, Pd, and Re, benchmarking their bulk a…

Salt concentration and particle density dependence of electrophoretic mobilities of spherical colloids in aqueous suspension.

2007

Using laser Doppler velocimetry in the superheterodyne mode, we conducted a systematic study of the electrophoretic mobility of dispersions of small silica spheres (a=18 nm) suspended in water at different salinities and particle concentrations. The concentration of NaCl was varied from 40 microM up to 16 mM, while the particle concentrations were varied between 4.2x10(18) and 2.1x10(20) m-3. We find a decrease of mobility with increasing salt concentrations and an increase with increased particle number densities. The latter observation is not backed by the standard cell model of electrophoresis with Shilov-Zharkikh boundary conditions. Rather, if the experimental data are interpreted with…

Efficiency Boosting of Surfactants with Poly(ethylene oxide)-Poly(alkyl glycidyl ether)s: A New Class of Amphiphilic Polymers

2020

Twenty years ago, it was found that adding small amounts of amphiphilic block copolymers like poly(ethylene propylene)-co-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEP-b-PEO) to microemulsion systems strongly increases the efficiency of medium-chain surfactants to solubilize water and oil. Although being predestined to serve as a milestone in microemulsion research, the effect has only scarcely found its way into applications. In this work, we propose new types of efficiency boosters, namely, poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(alkyl glycidyl ether carbonate)s (PEO-b-PAlkGE) and their "carbonated" poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(carbonate alkyl glycidyl ether) analogs. Their synthesis via anionic ring-opening polymerization (…

Micropolarity and Order in the Reverse Micelles of L62 and L64 Pluronic Copolymers, As Studied by Molecular Probe Techniques

1998

The reverse micelles of triblock copolymers poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(propylene oxide)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) EO6PO36EO6 (Pluronic L62) and EO13PO30EO13 (Pluronic L64) in ternary (copolymer/o-xylene/water) and binary (copolymer/water) systems with different water contents were evidenced and investigated by fluorescence, absorption, and spin probe techniques. The spectral parameters of the polarity sensitive probes, 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonic acid (ANS), dansylhexadecylamine (Dansyl), pyrenesulfonic acid (PSA), 4-nitropyridine N-oxide (NP) and 4-(N,N‘-dimethyl-N-alkyl)ammonium 2,2‘,6,6‘-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl iodide (CAT n), were related to the local hydration and polari…

Reversible stimulus-responsive Cu(i) iodide pyridine coordination polymer

2015

We present a structurally flexible copper–iodide–pyridine-based coordination polymer showing drastic variations in its electrical conductivity driven by temperature and sorption of acetic acid molecules. The dramatic effect on the electrical conductivity enables the fabrication of a simple and robust device for gas detection. X-ray diffraction studies and DFT calculations allow the rationalisation of these observations.

2016

The organic electrochemical transistor (OECT), capable of transducing small ionic fluxes into electronic signals in an aqueous environment, is an ideal device to utilize in bioelectronic applications. Currently, most OECTs are fabricated with commercially available conducting poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT)-based suspensions and are therefore operated in depletion mode. Here, we present a series of semiconducting polymers designed to elucidate important structure–property guidelines required for accumulation mode OECT operation. We discuss key aspects relating to OECT performance such as ion and hole transport, electrochromic properties, operational voltage, and stability. The demo…

Poling Induced Mass Transport in Thin Polymer Films

2013

In this study we report investigation of the polymer film morphology modifications during their corona poling for fabrication of nonlinear optically (NLO) active materials. We demonstrate that at certain poling conditions surface and spatial inhomogeneities in the poled area of the sample appear. Densities of the inhomogeinities depend on the strength of the poling field, the sample temperature during the poling, and the prepoling conditions. Optimization of the poling conditions directed toward avoiding surface modifications enables us to increase the overall observable effective nonlinearity of the sample up to 10 times. To investigate, understand, and eventually explain the formation of …