We present a soft bio-machine constructed from biological motors (actin/myosin). We have found that chemically cross-linked polymer-actin complex gel filaments can move on myosin coated surfaces with a velocity as high as that of native F-actin, by coupling to ATP hydrolysis. Additionally, it is shown that the velocity of polymer-actin complex gel depends on the species of polycations binding t...

We fabricate thermo-responsive polymer microgels by combining microfluidic pre-gel emulsification with polymer-analogous gelation. This separates the microgel formation from the polymer synthesis; it combines highly controlled microfluidic templating with the great flexibility of preparative polymer chemistry, allowing each to be controlled independently. We produce monodisperse pre-gel droplet...

Mode coupling theory (MCT) is used to model gel formation in mixtures of colloidal particles and nonadsorbing polymer. The polymer induces an effective, short-range attraction among the colloids, which is modeled by a depletion attraction of the Asakura-Oosawa form. This enables the MCT to be solved analytically for dilute systems, leading to a prediction, free of adjustable parameters, of the ...

A quantitative comparison of two full three-dimensional (3D) gel dosimetry techniques was assessed in a clinical setting: radiochromic gel dosimetry with an in-house developed optical laser CT scanner and polymer gel dosimetry with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). To benchmark both gel dosimeters, they were exposed to a 6 MV photon beam and the depth dose was compared against a diamond detecto...

In this paper, polyacrylamide/chromium acetate gel polymer system was prepared as water shut-off system to control water production in one of the Iranian oil reservoirs condition. Effect of various parameters such as temperature (90 °C) and water formation from view point of salinity and divalent cations, was evaluated on the gelation kinetic and gel strength using bottle testing method. Th...

The use of gels for the crystallization of small molecules and proteins has been studied during the last decades. Gel media removes convection and sedimentation controlling the transport processes by diffusion, and providing higher crystal quality [1,2]. Crystallisation of small molecules in gel media has been broadly described for hydrogels and, recently, it has been reported the use of organi...

Magnesium-ion conducting gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) based on PMMA with ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) as a plasticizing solvent were prepared via the solution casting technique. Mg(CF3SO3)2 salt was used as source of magnesium ions, Mg 2+ . The variation of conductivity with salt concentrations, from 5 wt.% to 30 wt.% was studied. The gel polymer electrolyte with comp...

Raman spectroscopy are used to characterize the chemical changes in normoxic polyhydroxyethylacrylate gel dosimeter (PHEA) induced by radiation. Irradiations in the low dose region are performed and the polymerizations of PHEA gels are monitored by the observing the changes of Raman shift intensity of the carbon covalent bond of PHEA originated from both monomer and the cross-linker. The variat...

The effect of addition of nano size fumed silica on the conductivity and viscosity behaviour of polymer gel electrolytes containing polyethylene oxide (PEO), ammonium hexafluorophosphate (NH4PF6) and propylene carbonate (PC) has been studied. The addition of PEO increases the viscosity of electrolytes alongwith a small increase in conductivity and polymer gel electrolytes with conductivity high...

In a nematic gel we observe a low-energy buckling deformation arising from soft and semisoft elastic modes. We prepare the self-assembled gel by dissolving a coil-side-group liquid-crystalline polymer-coil copolymer in a nematic liquid crystal. The gel has long network strands and a precisely tailored structure, making it ideal for studying nematic rubber elasticity. Under polarized optical mic...