The translocation of a single stranded nucleic acid polymer through a nanopore, by an external electric field applied across the pore, may be well described by a 1-D drift-diffusion model. Translocation times and velocities are calculated for a homopolymer driven through a nanopore, where the polymerpore interaction dominates the polymer dynamics. In this model a purely electrostatic polymer-po...

An Arthrobacter sp. isolated from a glucose-sucrose agar plate was found to produce a neutral, extremely viscous, opalescent extracellular polymer. Growth, polymer production, and rheological properties and chemical composition of the isolated polymer were examined. The polymer was found to be substantially different from other arthrobacter polymers. Some unusual properties included irreversibl...

Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) is a well-established technique for studying dynamic processes and interactions with minimal invasion into the corresponding system. Even though FCS has been mainly applied to biological systems, within the last 15 years an increasing number of studies in material sciences have appeared, demonstrating its enormous potential also for this field. Apart ...

A convenient, one-pot method for the synthesis of diazonium salt has been developed by the sequential diazotization of aromatic amines with NaNO2, polymer- supported periodic acid (PPIA) and 2-naphthole under solvent-free conditions at room temperature. By using this method, several types of aromatic amine, containing electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups, were rapidly converted to ...

Using polymer materials to fabricate microfluidic devices provides simple, cost effective, and disposal advantages for both lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices and micro total analysis systems (μTAS). Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer and thermoplastics are the two major polymer materials used in microfluidics. The fabrication of PDMS and thermoplastic microfluidic device can be categorized as fron...

Highly ordered polymer nanocomposites are complex materials that display a rich morphological behavior owing to variations in composition, structure, and properties on a nanometer length scale. Metal-polymer nanocomposite materials are becoming more popular for applications requiring low cost, high metal surface areas. Catalytic systems seem to be the most prevalent application for a wide range...

Recently, polymer gels have drawn much attention as scaffolds for regenerative medicines, soft actuators, and functional membranes. These applications need tough and robust polymer gels as represented by the double network gels. To fully understand this mechanism and develop further advanced polymer gels, we need to fully understand the molecular origin of fracture energy for conventional polym...

This review focuses on polymer field-effect transistor (PFET) based gas sensor with polymer as the sensing layer, which interacts with gas analyte and thus induces the change of source-drain current (ΔISD). Dependent on the sensing layer which can be semiconducting polymer, dielectric layer or conducting polymer gate, the PFET sensors can be subdivided into three types. For each type of sensor,...

We developed DNA-conjugated polymer for DNA chip fabrication. A 30 mer probe DNA and disulfide bridges were covalently attached to the polymer side chain. The DNA-conjugated polymer can be specifically adsorbed on a gold substrate surface by a self-assembly technique. The interaction between fully matched DNA and DNA-conjugated polymer was investigated by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) techniq...

In this study, a polymer-silica nanocomposite using the sol-gel method was synthesized in three steps at room temperature. The nanocomposite material was formed with an organic compound (polyethylene glycol) and inorganic silica nanoparticles. Furthermore, the size and the distribution of nanoparticles in the polymer matrix were characterized by a transmission electron microscope (TEM).  In add...