Brillouin Spectroscopy: From Biomedical Research to New Generation Pathology Diagnosis.

Brillouin spectroscopy has recently gained considerable interest within the biomedical field as an innovative tool to study mechanical properties in biology. The Brillouin effect is based on the inelastic scattering of photons caused by their interaction with thermodynamically driven acoustic modes or phonons and it is highly dependent on the material's elasticity. Therefore, Brillouin is a contactless, label-free optic approach to elastic and viscoelastic analysis that has enabled unprecedented analysis of ex vivo and in vivo mechanical behavior of several tissues with a micrometric resolution, paving the way to a promising future in clinical diagnosis.

Superhydrophobicity of composite surfaces created from polymer blends.

Hypothesis: When they are used alone, some polymers, such as polypropylene, Carnauba wax or polycarbonate allow the creation of superhydrophobic surfaces by spin coating or casting. On the other hand, some other polymers, such as polystyrene, polyvinylacetate or polychloroprene, are unable to render a superhydrophobic surface by these techniques. Using binary mixtures of these two types of polymers in a single common solvent, superhydrophobic composite surfaces can be created.

Impact of optical tissue clearing on the Brillouin signal from biological tissue samples.

Brillouin spectroscopy is a well-established technology in condensed matter physics to characterize the mechanical properties of inert materials, and it has been extended very recently to the study of biological samples. Transparency is beneficial for samples to be properly analyzed by Brillouin spectroscopy. Here, we explored the efficacy of optical tissue clearing techniques to improve the acquisition of Brillouin spectra from biological tissues in order to analyze their biomechanical properties.

Wettability influence on the onset temperature of pool boiling: Experimental evidence onto ultra-smooth surfaces.

In this article we study systematically the effect of wettability on the onset of boiling on the same nanometrically smooth surface. By grafting different monolayers of molecules, we were able to explore the wettability from the equilibrium static contact angle, θ0=0° to θ0=110°, without changing the surface topography. The superheat temperature at the onset of pool boiling was measured and eventually a non-classical trend of TONB as a function of wettability was observed.

phase instability and molecular kinetics provoked by repeated crossing of the demixing transition of PNIPAM solutions.

The demixing process of aqueous poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) solutions can occur either via a nucleation and growth process or via spinodal decomposition. The ensuing self-assembly, leading to heterogeneous morphologies within the PNIPAM solution, is codetermined by kinetic processes caused by molecular transport. By subjecting PNIPAM solutions to cyclic changes in temperature leading to repeated crossing of the demixing transition, we are able to assess the importance of kinetics as well as of overheating and supercooling of the phase transition within the metastable range delimited by the binodal and spinodal lines.