The Cover Feature shows an artistic interpretation of a supported polymerization catalyst particle that is fragmenting during ethylene polymerization. In their Research Article, F. Meirer, B. M. Weckhuysen and co-workers used high resolution X-ray electron microscopy to elucidate the origins sectioning fragmentation mechanism in two different silica-supported olefin catalysts at single level. o...

The effect of the pristine sodium montmorillonite (Na-MMT) on the styrene emulsion polymerizations with different concentrations of SDS ([SDS]) was investigated. At constant [SDS], the polymerization rate is faster for the run with 1 wt.% Na-MMT compared to the counterpart without Na-MMT. Micelle nucleation predominates in the polymerizations with [SDS] = 13 mM. On the other hand, the contribut...

DNA nanotubes provide a programmable architecture for molecular self-assembly and can serve as model systems for one-dimensional biomolecular assemblies. While a variety of DNA nanotubes have been synthesized and employed as models for natural biopolymers, an extensive investigation of DNA nanotube kinetics and thermodynamics has been lacking. Using total internal reflection microscopy, DNA nan...

Magnetically induced birefringence was used to monitor fibrin polymerization after the release of the small negatively charged A fibrinopeptides from human fibrinogen by the action of the snake-venom-derived enzymes reptilase and ancrod. A range of conditions was investigated. Fibrin polymerization in solutions of purified fibrinogen shows a distinct break near the gelation point. On addition o...

The cure kinetics of polydicyclopentadiene (pDCPD) prepared by ringopening metathesis polymerization with three different concentrations of Grubbs’ catalyst was examined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The experimental data were used to test several different phenomenological kinetic models. The data are best modeled with a “model-free” isoconversional method. This analysis revea...

The kinetics of the solution polymerization of methyl-methacrylate is characterized by a strong increase of viscosity up to 6 orders of magnitude and auto-acceleration of the reaction rate due to the gel-effect. This can lead to thermal and kinetic reactor instabilities. The kinetics were determined separately using a differential scanning calorimeter and described with a modified published mod...

Well-defined polymer brushes grafted onto silica nanoparticles were prepared by reversible additionfragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT). A versatile RAFT agent, 4-cyanopentanoic acid dithiobenzoate (CPDB), was attached to amino-functionalized colloidal silica nanoparticles by direct condensation of the mercaptothiazoline-activated CPDB with the surface amino groups. RAFT polymeriz...

The chemical oxidative polymerization of 2-aminothiazole (AT) was studied in aqueous solution using copper chloride (CuCl2) as an oxidant. The effect of varying the reaction temperature, reaction time and oxidant/monomer molar ratio on the polymer yield was investigated. The resulting poly(2-aminothiazole)s (PATs) were characterized by FTIR, 1H NMR, UV-vis, gel permeation chromatography, scanni...

The reverse transcriptase (RT) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) catalyzes a series of reactions to convert single-stranded viral RNA into double-stranded DNA for host cell integration. This process requires a variety of enzymatic activities, including DNA polymerization, RNA cleavage, strand transfer, and strand displacement synthesis. We used single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy ...