Exposure of therapeutic and diagnostic medical devices to biological fluids is often accompanied by interfacial adsorption of proteins, cells, and microorganisms. Biofouling of surfaces can lead to compromised device performance or increased cost and in some cases may be life-threatening to the patient. Although numerous antifouling polymer coatings have enjoyed short-term success in preventing...

Nanoscale analysis may be used to design new types of mucoadhesive polymers. Understanding of the surface interactions between hydrophilic polymer surfaces and mucins can lead to improved adhesive bonding by hydrogen bonding. Alternatively, decoration of a mucoadhesive polymer surface with tethers of linear and block copolymers containing neutral or ionizable structures provides increased inter...

Glutaraldehyde-crosslinked α-casein polymers with molecular masses of 1-5×10(5) were found to inhibit adhesive insoluble glucan formation catalyzed by glucan synthases from Streptococcus sobrinus B13, a cariogenic oral bacterium. Of the three subcomponents of the glucan synthases tested, primer-dependent insoluble glucan synthase was inhibited specifically by the M r~2.7×10(5) polymer at a conc...

Wrinkling patterns at the metallized surface of thin polymer films are shown to be sensitive to the sticky or slippery character of the polymer-substrate interface. Existing theoretical models were expanded to specific boundary conditions (adhesive versus slippery) in order to rationalize these observations. Based on this concept, we were able to propose a new and simple method to orient the wr...

Adhesive bonding is enlarging its application range as a practical method for the joining of dissimilar materials in automotives, aircrafts, microelectronics and medical devices industries replacing conventional joining techniques such as welding, bolting and riveting [1-5]. Especially for joining of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites to other structural materials such as metal, traditio...

A simple, yet innovative, method is presented for fabricating high-aspect-ratio polymer nanohairs (aspect ratio >20) on a solid substrate by sequential application of molding and drawing of a thin polymer film. The polymer film was prepared by spin coating on a rigid or flexible substrate, and the temperature was raised above the polymer's glass transition while in conformal contact with a poly...

We describe the preparation and electro-optic characteristics of a color display which makes use of the selective reflection of cholesteric droplets embedded in a polymer film. The polymer film is formed by a UV-curable adhesive, as opposed to the thermoplastic polymers which have been used previously. The new systems are easy to prepare and suitable for operation at room temperature. They show...

A polymer gel (ferrogel) is an assembly of ferromagnetic nanoparticles embeded in gel. In the ferrogel, the finely distributed magnetic particles are suspended in the swelling liquid and forma flexible matrix due to adhesive forces. The present paper describes an electric and acoustic study of magnetic field sensitive poly (dimethyl siloxane) ferrogel. The results showed hysteresis of acoustic ...

We have prepared composites of polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) reinforced with solution exfoliated graphene. We observe a 50% increase in stiffness and a 100% increase in tensile strength on addition of 0.1 vol % graphene compared to the pristine polymer. As PVAc is commonly used commercially as a glue, we have tested such composites as adhesives. The adhesive strength and toughness of the composites ...

The future development of polymer composite materials with nanotubes or nanoscale fibers requires the ability to understand and improve the interfacial bonding at the nanotube–polymer matrix interface. In recent work [Strus MC, Zalamea L, Raman A, Pipes RB, Nguyen CV, Stach EA. Peeling force spectroscopy: exposing the adhesive nanomechanics of one-dimensional nanostructures. Nano Lett 2008;8(2)...