The goal of this research was to define the controlling parameters affecting transport of drugs and proteins through poly(acrylic acid), PAA, and poly(acrylic acid-co-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate), P(AA-co-HEMA). The hydrogel formulation variables investigated included the amount of crosslinking agent and non-ionizable comonomer (i.e. HEMA), which ultimately defined the mesh size available for s...

In this work, we studied propylene polymerization using some α-diimine palladium catalysts with systematically varied ligand sterics. In propylene polymerization, the ligand steric effect exhibits significant variations on the catalytic activity, polymer molecular weight, and branching density. However, the regio control for the polymer microstructure is poor. Furthermore, copolymerization of 1...

Molecularly imprinted polymeric films (MIPFs) highly selective to 1R,2S(-)ephedrine (L-ephedrine, EPD) were produced by phase inversion post-polymerization imprinting on poly(acrylonitrile-co-methyl methacrylate-co-acrylic acid) (PAMA) terpolymers. The inclusion of methyl methacrylate (MMA) to the polymer formulation resulted in enhanced EPD selectivity which appears to be dictated by polymer c...

Hydrogels of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), and their interpenetrating networks (IPNs) were prepared using glutaraldehyde and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as crosslinking agents. The hydrogels were characterized by measuring their equilibrium polymer volume fraction, equilibrium swelling ratio, and mesh size. Drug and protein diffusion through these hydrogels were studie...

Prevailing trend towards the use of lighter and lower cost engineered plastics in automotive, construction, aerospace, electronics and other industrial end uses have created a need for pressure sensitive materials that can bond well to these new, inherently low surface energy plastics. Reported herein are novel all acrylic compositions with inherently lower surface energy that display significa...

We present measurements of the nanoscale elastic and viscoelastic properties of samples of poly(methylmetacrylate) (PMMA)/rubber nanocomposites. For these studies we have used a new technique based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) with ultrasonic excitation, heterodyne force microscopy (HFM), which provides a means of testing the viscoelastic response of polymeric materials locally (in tip-prob...

This work demonstrates the use of an engineering thermoplastic, poly(phenylene ether) (PPE) to enhance solvent resistance and thermomechanical properties liquid acrylic resin-based composites by a reactive hybridisation route. Oligomeric PPE with vinyl functionality was employed attain chemical reactivity between two constituents during in-situ polymerisation process. Both unreinforced polymer ...

A four-step soft lithographic process based on micro-contact printing of organic monolayers, hyperbranched polymer grafting, and subsequent polymer functionalization results in polymer/n-alkanethiol patterns that direct the growth and migration of mammalian cells. The functional units on these surfaces are three-dimensional cell "corrals" that have walls 52+/-2 nm in height and lateral dimensio...