We produced poro-us poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)/hydroxyapatite (HA) composite scaffolds for bone regeneration, which can have a tailored macro/micro-porous structure with high mechanical properties and excellent in vitro bioactivity using non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS)-based 3D plotting. This innovative 3D plotting technique can create highly microporous PCL/HA composite filaments b...

We study the effect of a gradient of solvent quality on the coil-globule transition for a polymer in a narrow pore. A simple self-attracting, self-avoiding walk model of a polymer in solution shows that the variation in the strength of the interaction across the pore leads the system to go from one regime (good solvent) to the other (poor solvent) across the channel. This may be thought to be a...

Predicting how aqueous solvent modulates the conformational transitions and influences the pKa values that regulate the biological functions of biomolecules remains an unsolved challenge. To address this problem, we developed FDPB_MF, a rotamer repacking method that exhaustively samples side chain conformational space and rigorously calculates multibody protein-solvent interactions. FDPB_MF pre...

The stability of DNA is highly dependent on the properties of the surrounding solvent, such as ionic strength, pH, and the presence of denaturants and osmolytes. Addition of pyridine is known to unfold DNA by replacing π-π stacking interactions between bases, stabilizing conformations in which the nucleotides are solvent exposed. We show here experimental and theoretical evidences that pyridine...

A (R)-binaphthol tethered bis-hexameric oligo(m-phenylene ethynylene) foldamer was examined in 30 solvents to correlate the unfolded-folded conformational equilibrium to bulk solvent properties and specific solvent-chain interactions. The oligomer is soluble in a variety of solvents of intermediate polarity, with the majority of these solvents being helicogenic. The amphiphilic nature of the ch...

Full recovery of interfacial bond strength after complete fiber/matrix debonding is achieved with a microencapsulated solvent-based healing chemistry. The surface of a glass fiber is functionalized with microcapsules containing varying concentrations of reactive epoxy resin and ethyl phenylacetate (EPA) solvent. Microbond specimens consisting of a single fiber and a microdroplet of epoxy are te...

It is well known that the osmotic pressure of protein solutions deviates from ideal behavior at high concentrations. Our lab previously developed a free-solvent model for osmotic pressure that provides excellent prediction of the osmotic pressure for protein solutions at moderate ionic strength using only physically-realizable parameters. The model assumes that the hydrated proteins behave idea...

Aim: To compare the shear bond strength (SBS) of a solvent free self-etch adhesive with solvent containing adhesives. Methods: Forty-five human teeth were sectioned longitudinally to expose superficial dentin and substrates polished with 600-grit SiC paper. The adhesive area was isolated with a cylindrical Teflon mold 3x4 mm. Fifteen specimens were prepared for each material. Were evaluated a s...

The deconstruction of cellulose is an essential step in the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass. However, the presence of lignin hinders this process. Recently, a novel cosolvent based biomass pretreatment method called CELF (Cosolvent Enhanced Lignocellulosic Fractionation) which employs tetrahydrofuran (THF) in a single phase mixture with water, was found to be highly effective...

The molecular motion of water in water-hydrophobic solute mixtures was investigated by the mode-coupling theory for molecular liquids based on the interaction-site description. When the model Lennard-Jones solute was mixed with water, both the translational and reorientational motions of solvent water become slower, in harmony with various experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. We comp...