Polymers can be modeled as open polygonal paths and their closure generates knots. Knotted proteins detection is currently achieved via high-throughput methods based on a common framework insensitive to the handedness of knots. Here we propose a topological framework for the computation of the HOMFLY polynomial, an handedness-sensitive invariant. Our approach couples a multi-component reduction...

DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS A ato-D D 10 /2 13 Bioresorbable polymers are extensively studied materials for medical applications. In this thesis, novel bioresorbable polymers, hydrophobically-modified crosslinked poly(ester anhydride) networks, were developed and characterized with the aim of obtaining suitable matrices for drug release applications. In these poly(ester anhydride) networks were comb...

Grafting polymers onto surfaces at high density to yield polymer brush coatings is a widely employed strategy to reduce biofouling and interfacial friction. These brushes almost universally feature synthetic polymers, which are often heterogeneous and do not readily allow incorporation of chemical functionalities at precise sites along the constituent chains. To complement these synthetic syste...

The development of efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) and organic photovoltaic cells requires control over the dynamics of spin sensitive excitations. Embedding heavy metal atoms in π-conjugated polymer chains enhances the spin-orbit coupling (SOC), and thus facilitates intersystem crossing (ISC) from the singlet to triplet manifolds. Here we use various nonlinear optical spectrosco...

As one of common dynamic covalent bonds, acylhydrazone bond plays an important role in developing intelligent responsive materials. In this report, we present acylhydrazone-based dynamic polymers with multi-stimuli responsiveness, particularly metal recognition behaviours and their modulation. A series of polyacylhydrazones with different metal-binding sites were designed and prepared in a modu...

In this work, we prepared a type of thioflavin T (ThT)-doped lanthanide/nucleotide coordination polymer by the self-assembly of ThT, europium ions (Eu(3+)) and nucleotides (guanosine monophosphate, GMP) in aqueous solution (i.e. ThT/Eu/GMP). The Eu/GMP coordination polymers show excellent adaptive inclusion properties for ThT in a convenient one-step approach, which can readily enhance the fluo...

Supercritical fluids (SCFs) offer a number of advantages for the synthesis and processing of polymeric materials. Early work in the field focused on the high-pressure polymerization of ethylene or exploited the adjustable physicochemical properties of SCFs, including density and dielectric constant, for the fractionation, extraction and impregnation of polymers.' Recently, the field has expande...

Star polymers are one example of three-dimensional macromolecules containing several arms with similar molecular weight connected to a central core. Due to their compact structure and their enhanced segment density in comparison to linear polymers of the same molecular weight, they have attracted significant attention during recent years. The preparation of block-arm star copolymers with a perm...

Jude K. Coompson, B.S. Marquette University, 2014 Benzene is a constituent component of crude oil that has been classified as a carcinogen by the EPA with a maximum contamination level (MCL) of 5ppb in drinking water. However, of the aromatic compounds, benzene has one of the lowest polymer-water partition coefficients using commercially available polymers as sensor coatings, resulting in poor ...

This paper describes the development of a new gas sensor device using some electroactive polymers in thin layers. The poly(fluoro-aluminium phthalocyanine) powder, (AlPcF)n, has been synthesized, then deposited by vacuum evaporation on alumina or silicon substrates in the form of thin films with control of the deposition rate. (AlPcF)n thin layers are doped by NO2 or O2 diluted at various conce...