The effect of the electrolyte concentration (NaCl aqueous electrolyte) on the dimensional variations of films of polypyrrole doped with dodecylbenzenesulfonate PPy(DBS) on Pt and Au wires was studied. Any parallel reaction that occurs during the redox polymeric reaction that drives the mechanical actuation, as detected from the coulovoltammetric responses, was avoided by using Pt wires as subst...

Stress development in thin layers of lead titanate prepared by sol-gel processing was monitored by in situ laser reflectance measurements. Layers were spin coated onto silicon substrates and thermally cycled to 500 °C. The shrinkage normal to the rigid substrate was determined by in situ ellipsometry. Changes that occurred on drying and firing, which related to densification and stress developm...

Droplet impact dynamics is vital to the understanding of several phase-change and heat-transfer phenomena. This work examines the role of substrate elasticity on the spreading and retraction behavior of water droplets impacting flat and textured superhydrophobic substrates. Experiments reveal that droplet retraction on flat surfaces decreases with decreasing substrate elasticity. This trend is ...

We previously showed that the polymeric forms of polyphenols present in oolong tea extract exhibited strong inhibitory activities against glucosyltransferases (GTases) of mutans streptococci, while green tea extract, which is rich in catechins, did not show such GTase-inhibitory activities. In this study, (+)-catechin [2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-3,4-dihydro-2H-1-benzopyran-3,5,7-triol] was found t...

A biofilm is complex aggregation of microorganisms growing on a solid substrate. These adherent cells are embedded within self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). Biofilms grow in the three stage process. Initially they get attached to the substratum, bacterial growth and division leads to colonization of the surrounding area and the formation of biofilms. Mature biofilm...

Understanding how ink transfers to a surface in dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) is crucial for designing new ink materials and developing the processes to pattern them. Herein, we investigate the transport of block copolymer inks with varying viscosities, from an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip to a substrate. The size of the patterned block copolymer features was determined to increase with dw...

The effect of cellulase treatments on the rheology of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) solutions was studied using a rotational viscometer. The rheological behaviors of CMC solutions of different molecular mass and degrees of substitution where studied as a function of time after various treatments. These solutions were subjected to active and heatdenatured cellulase, a cationic polyelectrolyte (C...

The objective of the present work was to develop a suitable transdermal drug delivery system for nitrendipine. Polymeric films of nitrendipine were prepared by the film casting technique (glass ring) on mercury substrate. They were evaluated for physicochemical parameters, in vitro release and ex vivo permeation (heat separated human epidermis). Release of the drug from the films followed anoma...

Polymer coatings are frequently utilized to control and modify substrate properties. The performance of the coatings is often determined by the first polymer layers between the substrate and the bulk polymer material, which are termed interphase. Standard methods have failed to completely characterize this interphase, because its properties change significantly over a few nanometers. Here we de...

The intrinsic protein fluorescence of the polygalacturonase from Colletotrichium lindemuthianum was exploited in stopped-flow experiments aimed at elucidating the kinetic mechanism for this enzyme. Binding of the polymeric substrate polygalacturonic acid (PGA) essentially produced a triphasic fluorescence profile. There was an initial rapid quench in fluorescence, consistent with the rapid form...