Functionally decoupled soft lithography for patterning polymer brushes.

Easy soft imprint nanolithography (ESINL) is employed in the patterning of multiple olymer brushes. This new approach to soft lithography is found to be uniquely effective at patterning brushes both prior to and subsequent to grafting of the polymer chains. Silicon substrates are grafted with polystyrene, polymethylmethacrylate, and polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate using surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization assisted by activators generated by electron transfer (ARGET-ATRP) and characterized by contact angle measurements, infrared spectroscopy, and ellipsometry.

Surface properties of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts and surrogate microspheres.

The physical properties that govern the waterborne transmission of Toxoplasma gondii oocysts from land to sea were evaluated and compared to the properties of carboxylated microspheres, which could serve as surrogates for T. gondii oocysts in transport and water treatment studies. The electrophoretic mobilities of T.