Microwave-assisted synthesis and characterization of hydrophilically functionalized polygalacturonic acid.

Microwave-assisted synthesis of a new class of polymeric surfactants based on polygalacturonic acid (PGA) is presented. PGA is water-insoluble and not surface-active under normal conditions. Single-step hydrophilic modification of PGA with taurine (2-aminoethane sulfonic acid) renders it surface-active.

Biocatalytic Synthesis of Fluorescent Conjugated Indole Oligomers.

Fluorescent conjugated materials exhibiting reasonable biocompatibility that are capable of interacting with biological molecules are of interest for bio-sensing and imaging applications. Traditional approaches do not allow for the synthesis of conjugated materials in the presence of biologically relevant substrates. Further conjugated polymers synthesized using conventional methods are doped and not fluorescent.

Micellar nanoreactors for hematin catalyzed synthesis of electrically conducting polypyrrole.

Enzymatic synthesis of doped polypyrrole (PPy) complexes using oxidoreductases (specifically peroxidases) is very well established "green" methods for producing conducting polypyrrole. The importance of this approach is realized by the numerous potential opportunities of using PPy in biological applications. However, due to very high costs and low acid stability of these enzymes, there is need for more robust alternate biomimetic catalysts.