Manipulation of Liquid Crystalline Properties by Dynamic Covalent Chemistry─En Route to Adaptive Materials.

Dynamic covalent bonds bear great potential for the development of adaptive and self-healing materials. Herein, we introduce a versatile concept not only for the design of low-molecular-weight liquid crystals but also for their postsynthetic modification by using the dynamic covalent nature of imine bonds. The methodology allows systematic investigations of structure-property relationships as well as the manipulation of the materials' behavior (liquid crystallinity) and the introduction of additional properties (here, fluorescence) by a solvent-free method.

Investigation of Roughness Correlation in Polymer Brushes via X-ray Scattering.

Thin polymer films and coatings are used to tailor the properties of surfaces in various applications such as protection against corrosion, biochemical functionalities or electronic resistors. Polymer brushes are a certain kind of thin polymer films, where polymer chains are covalently grafted to a substrate and straighten up to form a brush structure. Here we report on differences and similarities between polymer brushes and spin-coated polymer films from polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate with special emphasis on surface roughness and roughness correlation.

Hydrogel Functionalized Polyester Fabrics by UV-Induced Photopolymerization.

We address a strategy to graft hydrogels onto polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics using different acrylate-based monomers. The hydrogel-modified fabrics were prepared by a two-step modification. To this end, double functional groups were firstly introduced onto the PET surface via an aminolysis reaction involving allylamine.

Confinement Assembly of ABC Triblock Terpolymers for the High-Yield Synthesis of Janus Nanorings.

Block copolymers are versatile building blocks for the self-assembly of functional nanostructures in bulk and solution. While spheres, cylinders, and bilayer sheets are thermodynamically preferred shapes and frequently observed, ring-shaped nanoparticles are more challenging to realize due to energetic penalties that originate from their anisotropic curvature. Today, a handful of concepts exist that produce core-shell nanorings, while more complex ( e.

Electrical conductivity of silver nanoparticle doped carbon nanofibres measured by CS-AFM.

In this work, a pioneering study on the electrical properties of composite carbon nanofibres (CNFs) using current-sensitive atomic force microscopy (CS-AFM) has been demonstrated. CNFs are highly interesting materials which are usable in a wide array of applications electrode materials for biosensors, lithium ion batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors. CNFs offer a high specific surface area and thus have a high contact area for charge transfer.

Polymer Diffusion in the Interphase Between Surface and Solution.

Total internal reflection fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (TIR-FCS) is applied to study the self-diffusion of poly(ethylene glycol) solutions in the presence of weakly attractive interfaces. Glass coverslips modified with aminopropyl- and propyl-terminated silanes are used to study the influence of solid surfaces on polymer diffusion. A model of three phases of polymer diffusion allows to describe the experimental fluorescence autocorrelation functions.