There is a significant interest in developing environmentally responsive or stimuli-responsive smart materials. The purpose of this study was to investigate multi-function cotton fabrics with surface modification on the nanoscale. Three technologies including electrospinning technology, interpenetrating polymer network and cross-linking technology were applied prepare sericin/poly(N-isopropylac...

Natural systems are governed by adaptive and responsive behavior to survive, which is mostly driven by conformational changes and catalytic actions of proteins. These perfectly defined polyamide structures take on defined folded structures to get very sophisticated response behavior. Inspired by such systems, polymer scientists have developed a wide range of synthetic responsive polymer materia...

Deeper understanding of the molecular interactions between polymeric materials and the lipid membrane is important across a range of applications from permeation for drug delivery to encapsulation for immuno-evasion. Using highly fluidic microcavity supported lipid bilayers, we studied the interactions between amphiphilic polymer PP50 and a DOPC lipid bilayer. As the PP50 polymer is pH responsi...

The prevalence of pathogenic bacteria acquiring multidrug antibiotic resistance is a global health threat to mankind. This has motivated a renewed interest in developing alternatives to conventional antibiotics including bacteriophages (viruses) as therapeutic agents. The bacterium Clostridium difficile causes colon infection and is particularly difficult to treat with existing antibiotics; pha...

The development of environmentally responsive drug carriers requires new methods for assembling stimuli-responsive nanoparticulates. This communication describes a novel application of electrospray to construct bioresponsive peptide-based particulates, which can encapsulate drugs. These particles are composed from genetically engineered elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), a biodegradable, biocomp...

Liquid phase homogeneous reactions using soluble polymer supports have found numerous applications in homogeneous catalysis and organic synthesis because of their advantages of no interface mass transfer limitation and a high conversion rate. However, their application in analytical separation is limited by the inefficient/inconvenient recovery of the target molecules from the extremely complex...