Integrating Microstructured Electrospun Scaffolds in an Open Microfluidic System for Studies of Human Patient-Derived Primary Cells.

Recent studies have suggested that microenvironmental stimuli play a significant role in regulating cellular proliferation and migration, as well as in modulating self-renewal and differentiation processes of mammary cells with stem cell (SCs) properties. Recent advances in micro/nanotechnology and biomaterial synthesis/engineering currently enable the fabrication of innovative tissue culture platforms suitable for maintenance and differentiation of SCs Here, we report the design and fabrication of an open microfluidic device (OMD) integrating removable poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) based electrospun scaffolds, and we demonstrate that the OMD allows investigation of the behavior of human cells during culture in real time. Electrospun scaffolds with modified surface topography and chemistry can influence attachment, proliferation, and differentiation of mammary SCs and epigenetic mechanisms that maintain luminal cell identity as a function of specific morphological or biochemical cues imparted by tailor-made fiber post-treatments.

Nanofluidic-Based Accumulation of Antigens for Miniaturized Immunoassay.

The continuous advances of Nanofluidics have been stimulating the development of novel nanostructures and strategies to accumulate very diluted analytes, for implementing a new class of high sensitivity miniaturized polymeric sensors. We take advantage of the electrokinetic properties of these structures, which allow accumulating analytes inside asymmetric microfluidic structures to implement miniaturized sensors able to detect diluted solutions down to nearly 1.2 pg/mL.

Increased Flexibility in Lab-on-Chip Design with a Polymer Patchwork Approach.

Nanofluidic structures are often the key element of many lab-on-chips for biomedical and environmental applications. The demand for these devices to be able to perform increasingly complex tasks triggers a request for increasing the performance of the fabrication methods. Soft lithography and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) have since long been the basic ingredients for producing low-cost, biocompatible and flexible devices, replicating nanostructured masters.

The Role of Surfaces in Gas Transport Through Polymer Membranes.

This paper describes a procedure to measure the permeability , diffusivity and rate of adsorption , thus determining the solubility and rate of desorption of He, N, O, CH, and CO on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane. The described procedure is able to determine experimentally all the physical quantities that characterize the gas transport process through a thin rubber polymer membrane. The experiments were carried out at room temperature and at a transmembrane pressure of 1 atm.

White light-emitting electrochemical cells based on the Langmuir-Blodgett technique.

Light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) showing a white emission have been prepared with Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of the metallosurfactant bis[2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridine][2-(1-hexadecyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl)pyridine]iridium(III) chloride (1), which work with an air-stable Al electrode. They were prepared by depositing a LB film of 1 on top of a layer of poly(N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis(4-hexylphenyl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diamine (pTPD) spin-coated on indium tin oxide (ITO). The white color of the electroluminescence of the device contrasts with the blue color of the photoluminescence of 1 in solution and within the LB films.

Patterning of magnetic bimetallic coordination nanoparticles of Prussian blue derivatives by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique.

We report a novel method to prepare patterns of nanoparticles over large areas of the substrate. This method is based on the adsorption of the negatively charged nanoparticles dispersed in an aqueous subphase onto a monolayer of the phospholipid dipalmitoyl-l-α-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) at the air-water interface. It has been used to prepare patterns of nanoparticles of Prussian blue analogues (PBA) of different size (K(0.

Photo-induced magnetic bistability in a controlled assembly of anisotropic coordination nanoparticles.

Anisotropic coordination nanoparticles of the photomagnetic network Cs(I)(2)Cu(II)(7)[Mo(IV)(CN)(8)](4) are obtained through a surfactant-free high-yield synthetic procedure in water. These particles are organised as Langmuir-Blodgett films with a preferential orientation of the nano-objects within the film that exhibit a magnetic bistability below 20 K with a very large coercivity due to an efficient photo-transformation.

Dual-emitting Langmuir-Blodgett film-based organic light-emitting diodes.

Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films containing alternating layers of the metallosurfactants bis(4,4'-tridecyl-2,2'-bipyridine)-(4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridine) ruthenium(II)-bis(chloride) (1) and bis[2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)pyridine](4,4'-dinonadecyl-2,2'-bipyridine)iridium(III) chloride (2) have been prepared. Langmuir monolayers at the air-water interface of 1 and 2 with different anions in the subphase have been characterized by pi-A compression isotherms and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). The transferred LB films have been characterized by IR, UV-vis and emission spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM).

Dual-emissive photoluminescent Langmuir-Blodgett films of decatungstoeuropate and an amphiphilic iridium complex.

Langmuir monolayers and Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of the decatungstoeuropate [Eu(W(5)O(18))(2)](9-) (EuW(10)) and the amphiphilic Ir complex 1 have been successfully fabricated by using the adsorption properties of the EuW(10) polyanion dissolved in the aqueous subphase onto a positively charged 1 monolayer at the air-water interface. The compression isotherms and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM) of monolayers of 1 on pure water (1 monolayer) and on a subphase containing 10(-6) M EuW(10) and 10(-3) M NaCl (1/EuW(10) monolayer) have been studied. Infrared and UV-vis spectroscopy of the transferred LB films indicate that EuW(10) and 1 molecules are incorporated within these LB films.

Molecular ionic junction for enhanced electronic charge transfer.

We present the first evidence of charge injection improvement in an organic electroluminescent device provided by a single ionic molecular layer. A hole-dominated, hybrid organic-inorganic light-emitting device is used as a probe to verify the effectiveness of the ionic compound monolayer on modifying the metal oxide cathode. The rearrangement of ions under an applied bias induces a strong field at the electrode-organic interface resulting in an enhancement of the electron injection into the organic semiconductor.

A supramolecularly-caged ionic iridium(III) complex yielding bright and very stable solid-state light-emitting electrochemical cells.

A new iridium(III) complex showing intramolecular interligand pi-stacking has been synthesized and used to improve the stability of single-component, solid-state light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) devices. The pi-stacking results in the formation of a very stable supramolecularly caged complex. LECs using this complex show extraordinary stabilities (estimated lifetime of 600 h) and luminance values (average luminance of 230 cd m-2) indicating the path toward stable ionic complexes for use in LECs reaching stabilities required for practical applications.