Polymersomes at the solid-liquid interface: Dynamic morphological transformation and lubrication.

Polymersomes are hollow spheres self-assembled from amphiphilic block copolymers of certain molecular architecture. Whilst they have been widely studied for biomedical applications, relatively few studies have reported their interfacial properties. In particular, lubrication by polymersomes has not been previously reported.

Influence of solvent polarity on the structure of drop-cast electroactive tetra(aniline)-surfactant thin films.

The influence of processing conditions on the thin film microstructure is a fundamental question that must be understood to improve the performance of solution-processed organic electronic materials. Using grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction, we have studied the structure of thin films of a tetra(aniline)-surfactant complex prepared by drop-casting from five solvents (hexane, chloroform, tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane and ethanol), selected to cover a range of polarities. We found that the structure, level of order and degree of orientation relative to the substrate were extremely sensitive to the solvent used.

Hydrophilic nanoparticles stabilising mesophase curvature at low concentration but disrupting mesophase order at higher concentrations.

Using high pressure small angle X-ray scattering (HP-SAXS), we have studied monoolein (MO) mesophases at 18 wt% hydration in the presence of 10 nm silica nanoparticles (NPs) at NP-lipid number ratios (ν) of 1 × 10(-6), 1 × 10(-5) and 1 × 10(-4) over the pressure range 1-2700 bar and temperature range 20-60 °C. In the absence of the silica NPs, the pressure-temperature (p-T) phase diagram of monoolein exhibited inverse bicontinuous cubic gyroid (Q), lamellar alpha (Lα), and lamellar crystalline (Lc) phases. The addition of the NPs significantly altered the p-T phase diagram, changing the pressure (p) and the temperature (T) at which the transitions between these mesophases occurred.