The fabrication of freestanding, sub-100 nm-thick, pH-responsive hydrogel membranes with controlled nano-morphology, based on modified poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) is presented. Polymer hydrogel-brush films were first synthesized by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) and subsequently detached from silicon substrates by UV-induced photo-cleavage of a spec...

A new class of surface-structured RO membranes was developed with a hydrophilic brush layer of terminally anchored polymer chains resulting in fouling resistant membranes of low mineral scaling propensity and high permeability. The approach is based on free-radical graft polymerization of a suitable monomer, onto the active polyamide (PA) layer of a thin film composite (PA-TFC) membrane, post-s...

Adjusting the inter-particle distances in ordered nanoparticle arrays can create new nano-devices and is of increasing importance to a number of applications such as nanoelectronics and optical devices. The assembly of negatively charged polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles (NPs) on Poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) brushes, quaternized PDMAEMA brushes and Si/PEI/(PSS/PAH)2, was stu...

A photo-crosslinked polystyrene (PS) thin film is investigated as a potential guiding sub-layer for polystyrene-block-poly (methyl methacrylate) block copolymer (BCP) cylindrical nanopattern formation via topographic directed self-assembly (DSA). When compared to a non-crosslinked PS brush sub-layer, the photo-crosslinked PS sub-layer provided longer correlation lengths of the BCP nanostructure...

High density DNA brush is not only used to model cellular crowding, but also has a wide application in DNA-functionalized materials. Experiments have shown complicated cooperative hybridization/melting phenomena in these systems, raising the question that how molecular crowding influences DNA hybridization. In this work, a theoretical modeling including all possible inter and intramolecular int...

Recent theoretical works exploring the hydrodynamics of soft material in non-equilibrium situations are reviewed. We discuss the role of hydrodynamic interactions for three different systems: (i) the deformation and orientation of sedimenting semiflexible polymers, (ii) the propulsion and force-rectification with a nano-machine realized by a rotating elastic rod, and (iii) the deformation of a ...