PAT at the Universities of Applied Sciences.

An overview of activities in the field of Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) at the Universities of Applied Sciences in Switzerland is presented.

PAT at the Universities of Applied Sciences.

An overview of activities in the field of Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) at the Universities of Applied Sciences in Switzerland is presented.

Membranes for specific adsorption: immobilizing molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres using electrospun nanofibers.

Molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres were immobilized within a polymer nanofiber membrane by electrospinning. Such membranes simplify the handling of functional microspheres and provide specific recognition capabilities for solid-phase extraction and filtration applications. In this study, microspheres were prepared by precipitation polymerization of methacrylic acid and divinylbenzene as a cross-linker with the target molecule (-)-cinchonidine and then, they were electrospun into a non-woven polyacrylonitrile nanofiber membrane.

Toward an injectable continuous osmotic glucose sensor.

Background: The growing pandemic of diabetes mellitus places a stringent social and economic burden on the society. A tight glycemic control circumvents the detrimental effects, but the prerogative is the development of new more effective tools capable of longterm tracking of blood glucose (BG) in vivo. Such discontinuous sensor technologies will benefit from an unprecedented marked potential as well as reducing the current life expectancy gap of eight years as part of a therapeutic regime.

Templated growth of carbon nanotubes with controlled diameters using organic-organometallic block copolymers with tailored block lengths.

Block copolymer thin films fabricated from polystyrene-polyferrocenylsilane (PS-b-PFS) block copolymers on silicon substrates were used as precursors of well-ordered, nanosized growth catalysts for carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The size of the catalytic domains was tuned by changing the molecular weight of the block copolymer, enabling control of the diameter of the CNTs grown from these substrates. CNT growth on catalytic substrates with larger organometallic domain sizes, using acetylene as a carbon source, resulted in enhanced amounts of CNT deposition compared to smaller PFS domains, which exhibited low catalytic activity.

Organization of nanoparticles on hard substrates using block copolymer films as templates.

We present a technique for the organization of pre-synthesized nanoparticles on hard substrates, using block copolymer films as sacrificial templates. A thin block copolymer film is dip-coated on the substrate of interest and the sample is exposed to a solution containing nanoparticles. Spontaneous preferential adsorption of the nanoparticles on one phase of the block copolymer film results in their lateral organization.

Block copolymer micelles as switchable templates for nanofabrication.

Block copolymer inverse micelles from polystyrene-block-poly-2-vinylpyridine (PS-b-P2VP) deposited as monolayer films onto surfaces show responsive behavior and are reversibly switchable between two states of different topography and surface chemistry. The as-coated films are in the form of arrays of nanoscale bumps, which can be transformed into arrays of nanoscale holes by switching through exposure to methanol. The use of these micellar films to act as switchable etch masks for the structuring of the underlying material to form either pillars or holes depending on the switching state is demonstrated.

Micrometer-long gold nanowires fabricated using block copolymer templates.

Micrometer-long gold nanowires were fabricated via self-assembly. Diblock copolymer films served as templates for the selective adsorption of 10 nm gold nanoparticles from solution to form well-defined nanostructures. An oxygen plasma treatment induced aggregation of the nanoparticles and the formation of continuous gold nanostructures.

Olefin Metathesis of a Ruthenium Carbene Complex by Electrospray Ionization in the Gas Phase.

Surprisingly similar reactions in the gas phase and in solution [Eq. (a)]: The ion 1 obtained by electrospray ionization behaves in the gas phase analogously to the corresponding complex [RuCl (=CHPh)(PCy ) ] in solution. Measured relative rates for ring-opening metathesis are interpreted under the assumption of an intramolecular π complex, which leads to an estimation of the equilibrium constant for π complexation.