Related papers: The conformation of thermoresponsive polymer brush…
Shear responsive surfaces offer potential advances in a number of applications. Surface functionalisation using polymer brushes is one route to such properties, particularly in the case of entangled polymers. We report on neutron…
We consider a functional surface comprising thermoresponsive polymer chains, the material that has found numerous technological and biomedical applications. However, to achieve the required time and length scales for computer modelling of…
We probe, using the Surface Forces Apparatus, the thermal response of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) brushes of various grafting densities, grown from plasma-activated mica by means of surface-initiated polymerization. We thus show…
We describe the design of micropatterned surfaces for single cell studies, based on thermoresponsive polymer brushes. We show that brushes made of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) grafted at high surface density display excellent protein and…
We present the study of millisecond-resolved polymer brush swelling dynamics using infrared spectroscopy with a custom-built quantum cascade laser-based infrared spectrometer at a 1 kHz sampling rate after averaging. By cycling the humidity…
Temperature-sensitive hydrogels based on polymers such as poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) undergo a volume phase transition in response to changes in temperature. During this transition, distinct changes in both thermal and mechanical…
Increasing requirements in the sensitivity of interferometric measurements is a common feature of several research fields, from gravitational wave detection to quantum optics. This motivates refined studies of high reflectivity mirrors and…
We experimentally and theoretically consider highly condensed planar brushes made of charged polymers. Using x-ray reflectivity on polyelectrolytes which are anchored at the water-air interface, it is shown that such strongly stretched…
We have explored a model for adsorption of water into slit-like nanochannels with two walls chemically modified by grafted polymer layers forming brushes. A version of density functional method is used as theoretical tools. The water-like…
We measure the isothermal rejuvenation of stable glass films of poly(styrene) and poly(methylmethacrylate). We demonstrate that the propagation of the front responsible for the transformation to a supercooled-liquid state can serve as a…
We present results of temperature dependent measurements of dynamics of micellar nanoparticle - polymer composites of fixed volume fraction and variable polymer chain grafting density. For nanoparticles with lower grafting density we…
Thermoreflectance methods by picosecond pulse heating and by nanosecond pulse heating have been developed under the same geometrical configuration as the laser flash method by the National Metrology Institute of JAPAN, AIST. Using these…
In this article we introduce the MARTINI model of a widely used thermoresponsive polymer, Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide). Importantly, our model takes into account polymer's stereoregularity (i.e. tacticity). We highlight the effect of…
Temperature-responsive properties of surface-attached poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) network films with well-controlled chemistry are investigated. The synthesis consists of cross-linking and grafting preformed ene-reactive polymer…
Brush-like structures emerge from stretching of long polymer chains, densely grafted on to the surface of an impermeable substrate. They arise due to the competition between conformational entropic elasticity of polymer chains and excluded…
Measuring temperature fields in semi-transparent media requires the knowledge of material thermo-optic properties. While the current techniques are well established for isothermal thin films, they remain unexplored for thick media where…
Glass transition process gets affected in ultrathin films having thickness comparable to the size of the molecules. We observe systematic broadening of glass transition temperature (Tg) as the thickness of the polymer film reduces below the…
In nature adaptive coloration has been effectively utilized for concealment and signaling. Various biological mechanisms have evolved that can tune the reflectivity for visible and ultraviolet light. These examples inspire many artificial…
The phase behavior of poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) nanoparticles dispersed in aqueous medium is investigated as a function of temperature using static and dynamic light scattering techniques. The diameter, d of the particles, as determined…
We resolve the Schr\"{o}der paradox for PNiPAAm brushes, showing experimentally that swelling at 100\% relative humidity (RH) matches the liquid state. This occurs via a sharp increase in swelling above 98\%~RH, a behavior standard models…