Nanoengineering with RAFT polymers: from nanocomposite design to applications

From Nanotechnology to Nanoengineering

In those early days, nanotechnology referred to the possibility of synthesis via direct manipulation of atoms and molecules for fabrication of macroscale products. In the 1990, K. Eric Drexler and M. Minsky used the word “nanotechnology” in their book “Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology” (Drexler and Minsky 1990), in which they proposed assembling machines and devices on the ...

RAFT polymers for protein recognition

A new family of linear polymers with pronounced affinity for arginine- and lysine-rich proteins has been created. To this end, N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) was copolymerized in water with a binding monomer and a hydrophobic comonomer using a living radical polymerization (RAFT). The resulting copolymers were water-soluble and displayed narrow polydispersities. They formed tight complexes with ...

Design of Dithiobenzoate RAFT Agent Bearing Hydroxyl Groups and Its Application in RAFT Polymerization for Telechelic Diol Polymers

RAFT polymerization is attractive for its reliability, facile operation, and high tolerance to a wide variety of monomers, functional groups, solvents, and temperatures. Herein, we report the RAFT-based synthesis of well-defined polymers bearing hydroxyl groups at two terminals by using various monomers. We found that the molecular weight of obtained polymers was half that of a target value whe...

Optical Elastography: From Theory to Clinical Applications

Nucleic acid-based nanoengineering: novel structures for biomedical applications.

Nanoengineering exploits the interactions of materials at the nanometre scale to create functional nanostructures. It relies on the precise organization of nanomaterials to achieve unique functionality. There are no interactions more elegant than those governing nucleic acids via Watson-Crick base-pairing rules. The infinite combinations of DNA/RNA base pairs and their remarkable molecular reco...