Synthesis and characterization of low surface energy fluoropolymers as potential barrier coatings in oral care.

A series of low surface energy fluorinated homopolymers and copolymers has been synthesized and characterized using thermal, optical, spectroscopic, and chromatographic techniques. Their utility as barrier technologies in oral care has been considered, and aqueous nanosuspensions of the materials have been deposited as films on model dental hard surfaces in the presence and absence of a salivary pellicle. Calcium hydroxyapatite has been used as a model for enamel, as has PMMA due to its widespread use in denture fabrication.

Identification by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of the volatile organic compounds emitted from the wood-rotting fungi Serpula lacrymans and Coniophora puteana, and from Pinus sylvestris timber.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by two wood-rotting basidiomycete fungi, Serpula lacrymans (dry rot fungus) and Coniophora puteana (cellar fungus), and the timber of Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine), were identified. Several volatile collection techniques were employed including dichloromethane solvent extraction, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and thermal desorption of VOCs entrained on Tenax GR. In addition, a new method of solid sample injection (SSI) is described which utilises a low injector temperature and an all-glass deactivated injector liner designed to minimise both the formation of pyrolysis products and analyte degradation.

Mucin/poly(acrylic acid) interactions: a spectroscopic investigation of mucoadhesion.

Studies using infrared, (1)H and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies and differential scanning calorimetry support the hypothesis that hydrogen bonds, formed between the carboxylic acid functionality of the mucoadhesive material poly(acrylic acid) and the glycoprotein component of mucus, play a significant role in the process of mucoadhesion. There are fewer H-bonded interactions between the components than within the bulk of the pure mucoadhesive agent. The pH of the medium influences the structures of both the poly(acrylic acid) and the mucus, which, in turn, determine the nature and the extent of mucoadhesive interactions.

Adsorbed poly(ethyleneoxide)-poly(propyleneoxide) copolymers on synthetic surfaces: spectroscopy and microscopy of polymer structures and effects on adhesion of skin-borne bacteria.

Poly(ethyleneoxide)-copoly(propyleneoxide) (PEO-PPO) polymer coatings were evaluated for their resistance to the attachment of the marker organism Serratia marcescens and the skin-borne bacteria Staphylococcus epidermidis. The copolymers were adsorbed onto poly(styrene) films-chosen as simplified physicochemical models of skin surfaces-and their surface characteristics probed by contact angle goniometry, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). These functional surfaces were then presented to microbial cultures, bacterial attachment was assessed by fluorescence microscopy and AFM, and the structures of the polymer films examined again spectroscopically.