This study presents a facile way synthesizing disc-like lipid bilyaer nanostructures with a cationic amphiphilic polyelectrolyte. The cationic amphiphilic polyelectrolyte was in a form of partially quarternized copolymer and was synthesized with 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate and stearyl methacrylate. At some concentration ranges of the polymer, the addition of the polymer to lipid compone...

The processing of a polyelectrolyte (whose functionality is derived from its ionized functional groups) into a nanofiber may improve its functionality and yield multiple functionalities. However, the electrospinning of nanofibers from polyelectrolytes is imperfect because polyelectrolytes differ considerably from neutral polymers in their rheological properties. In our study, we attempt to solv...

Multivalent ions can induce condensation of like-charged polyelectrolytes into compact states, a process that requires different ion valences for different polyelectrolyte species. In this work we examine the condensation behavior in binary anionic polyelectrolyte mixtures consisting of DNA coils and F-actin rods in the presence of monovalent, divalent, and trivalent ions. As expected, monovale...

Self-healing is the ability of a material to repair mechanical damage. The lifetime of a coating or film might be lengthened with this capacity. Water enabled self-healing of polyelectrolyte multilayers has been reported, using systems that grow via the interdiffusion of polyelectrolyte chains. Due to high mobility of the polyelectrolyte chains within the assembly, it is possible for lateral di...

Salt-free polyelectrolyte behaviour which is typically observed at low polymer concentrations for polyelectrolyte aqueous solutions and random ionomer non-aqueous solutions (in polar solvents) (i.e., negative angular dependence of the reciprocal scattering in static light scattering and an appearance of the fast mode in dynamic light scattering) has been observed for monotelechelic ionomer solu...

This work addresses the formation and the internal morphology of polyelectrolyte layers obtained by the layer-by-layer method. A multimodal characterization showed the absence of stratification of the films formed by the alternate deposition of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate). Indeed the final organization might be regarded as three-dimensional solid-s...

We report on the fabrication of polyelectrolyte multilayer-coated hollow silicon dioxide micropillars as pH-responsive drug delivery systems. Silicon dioxide micropillars are based on macroporous silicon formed by electrochemical etching. Due to their hollow core capable of being loaded with chemically active agents, silicon dioxide micropillars provide additional function such as drug delivery...

A sophisticatedly designed polyelectrolyte diode was fabricated on a microchip and exhibited well-defined nonlinear rectifying behavior. Multiple polyelectrolyte diodes were integrated on a microchip to produce a variety of logic gates based on ionic circuits. By employing a fluorescent dye, the polyelectrolyte micro plugs also acted as optical indicators displaying the input signals applied to...

The formation of kinks in a loop of bundled polyelectrolyte filaments is analyzed in terms of the thermal fluctuations of charge density due to polyvalent counterions adsorbed on the polyelectrolyte filaments. It is found that the counterion-mediated attraction energy of filaments depends on their bending. By consideration of curvature elasticity energy and counterion-mediated attraction betwee...