Polymeric gene-delivery vectors to achieve lack of toxicity and a balance between protection and DNA release remains a formidable challenge. Incorporating intracellular environment-responsive degradable bonds is an appreciable step toward developing safer transfection agents. In this study, novel, dual-degradable polycation copolymers (Pluronic-diacrylate [PA]-polyethyleneimine [PEI]-SS) were s...

Morphology and deformation mechanisms and tensile properties of tetrafunctional multigraft (MG) polystrene-g-polyisoprene (PS-g-PI) copolymers were investigated dependent on PS volume fraction and number of branch points. The combination of various methods such as TEM, real time synchrotron SAXS, rheo-optical FTIR, and tensile tests provides comprehensive information at different dimension leve...

In this study, the prototype of a thermal roller imprint lithography (RIL) system was developed and applied to RIL tests to evaluate its feasibility for the large area replication of an optical micro device. The developed system adapts an automatic stamp releasing mechanism and has the capacity to replicate ultra-precision structures on an area of 100mm×100mm at the scanning speed range of 0.1–...

As a breakthrough in the cost and durability of molds for nanoimprint lithography (NIL), replica molds are fabricated by injection compression molding (ICM). ICM is commonly used for optical disks such as DVDs or Blu-ray disks and is also a practical fabrication method for nanostructures. In this paper, I successfully demonstrated the fabrication of cycloolefin polymer replica molds with struct...

A cycloolefin polymer chip supporting the concatenation of isoelectric focusing (IEF) and reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) is demonstrated for high throughput two dimensional peptide separations. A unique benefit of the mixed-mode platform is the ability of IEF to act as a highly concentrating electrokinetic separation mode for effective isolation of sample components prior to RPLC. ...

The performances of new polymeric materials with excellent optical properties and good machinability, have led the biomedical diagnostics industry to develop cheap disposable biosensor platforms, appropriate for point of care applications. Zeonor, a type of cycloolefin polymers (COP) is one such polymer that presents an excellent platform for biosensor chips. These polymer substrates have to be...

GalactosylatedN-3-guanidinopropylmethacrylamide-co-poly (ethylene glycol) methacrylate copolymers (galactosylated GPMA-co-PEGMA, GGP) were developed in order to promote transfection efficiency in the presence of serum in this report. First of all, the galactosylated PEGMA-co-GPMA copolymers were prepared via aqueous reversible addition – fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) of pol...

AB diblock copolymers comprised of poly(2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (PMPC) and poly(3-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane) (PMTSi) segments, which are used for biocompatible coatings, were investigated. Block copolymers with various compositions were synthesized by atomic transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The obtained copolymers were dissolved in an ethanol solution, and dyn...

Control over micelle properties is vital in the field of drug delivery, and the ability to modify these properties in order to trigger dissociation is highly desirable. We prepared polymeric micelles with the ability to undergo dissociation over time without the need for external stimulation by incorporating an electroactive and redox responsive segment into amphiphilic copolymers. The incorpor...

Efficient, one-pot preparation of synthetically challenging, high molecular weight (MW), narrowly dispersed brush block copolymers and random copolymers in high conversions was achieved by ring-opening metathesis (co)polymerization (ROMP) of various macromonomers (MMs) using the highly active, fast-initiating ruthenium olefin metathesis catalyst (H(2)IMes)(pyr)(2)(Cl)(2)RuCHPh. A series of rand...