Chitosan, the cationic polysaccharide derived from the natural polysaccharide chitin, has been studied as a biomaterial for more than two decades. As a polycationic polymer with favorable properties, it has been widely used to form polyelectrolyte complexes with polyanions for various applications in drug delivery fields. In recent years, a growing number of studies have been focused on the pre...

Subtle details about a polyelectrolyte's surrounding environment can dictate its structural features and potential applications. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), surface forces apparatus (SFA) measurements, and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations are combined to study the structure of planar polyelectrolyte brushes [poly(styrenesulfonate), PSS] in a variety of solvent conditions. More s...

The aim of this work was to study the properties of the carboxylated polyelectrolyte obtained from guar gum. The C-6 alcohol functions of galactose units side chains were oxidized first by GO-ase to aldehyde groups and then to carboxylic groups by halogen oxidation. The enzymic oxidation step was followed by the Dische method, by viscosity and light scattering measurements. With regard to previ...

The ageing of powdered polyelectrolyte solutions has shown that while the viscosity of these solutions decreases rapidly with time, the flocculation performance and the strength of the flocs produced does not alter over periods >200 days. This was shown for polyacrylamides of cationic, anionic and non-ionic charge. The use of tap or deionized water did not adversely affect the results unless a ...

We use a coarse-grained molecular dynamics model to study the electrophoretic behaviour of flexible polyelectrolyte chains. We first characterize the static properties of the model with respect to the chain length, the polyelectrolyte concentration, additional salt and the influence of an applied external field. Next we investigate the dynamic behaviour in the oligomer range and compare to data...

We discuss the interaction of proteins dissolved in aqueous solution with spherical polyelectrolyte brushes (SPB). The SPB consist of a solid core particle of colloidal dimensions (ca. 100 nm in diameter) onto which long polyelectrolyte chains have been grafted. Immersed in aqueous solution of proteins these SPB will take up high amounts of protein if the ionic strength is low. At high ionic st...

BACKGROUND Escherichia coli is one of the best studied microorganisms and finds multiple applications especially as tool in the heterologous production of interesting proteins of other organisms. The heterologous expression of special surface (S-) layer proteins caused the formation of extremely long E. coli cells which leave transparent tubes when they divide into single E. coli cells. Such na...

Reconstruction of extracellular matrix substrates for delivery of functional photoreceptors is crucial in pathologies such as retinal degeneration and age-related macular degeneration. In this study, we assembled polyelectrolyte films using the layer-by-layer deposition method. The buildup of three different films composed of poly(L-lysine)/chondroitin sulfate (PLL/CSA), poly(L-lysine)/poly(sty...

Closure systems for personnel protection applications, such as protective clothing or respirator face seals, should provide effective permeation barrier to toxic gases. Currently available mechanical closure systems based on the hook and loop types (example, Velcro) do not provide adequate barrier to gas permeation. To achieve hermetic sealing, we propose a nonmechanical, nanoscopic molecular c...