Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) between tyrosine- and arginine-rich peptides are of biological importance. To understand the interactions proteins in condensed close analogy to complex coacervation, we run multiple umbrella calculations oligomers containing tyrosine (pY) arginine (pR). We find pR-pY complexation be energetically driven. Metadynamics simulations on monomers suggest that th...

In the last few years, interest in monomolecular layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) has been driven by their unusual electronic and optical properties, which are very attractive for designing functional elements new generation nanoelectronics. Recently, experimental evidence appeared formation a high-temperature strongly bound electron-hole liquid (EHL) TMD monolayers. Strong bin...

We report a facile one-step route to graft poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) onto cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs). The dispersibility of the PIL-functionalized CNFs in water and various organic solvents could be tuned by the choice of the PIL-binding anion. We demonstrate that such omnidispersible PIL@CNF hybrids can be used to reinforce porous poly(ionic liquid) membranes.

The binding of small metal ions to complex macromolecular structures is typically dominated by strong local interactions of the ion with its nearest ligands. For this reason, it is often possible to understand the microscopic origin of ion binding selectivity by considering simplified reduced models comprised of only the nearest ion-coordinating ligands. Although the main ingredients underlying...

An acid extract of pedal ganglia of the mollusc Mytilus edulis was fractionated by high-pressure liquid chromatography with a reverse-phase column. Peak fractions with retention times of those of [Met]- and [Leu]enkephalin were subjected to binding assays in both invertebrate and vertebrate tissues. The results showed that these fractions have the same binding activities as authentic enkephalin...

It has been predicted, but never confirmed, that colloidal particles in a nematic liquid crystal could be self-assembled by delocalized topological defects and entangled disclinations. We show experimentally and theoretically that colloidal dimers and 1D structures bound by entangled topological defect loops can indeed be created by locally thermally quenching a thin layer of the nematic liquid...

Near-infrared spectrometry has been successfully used to determine association binding constants between phenol and alpha-, beta- and gamma-cyclodextrin (CD) in [butylmethylimidazolium][chloride] room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL). It was found that adding CD into the RTIL solution of phenol resulted in an enhancement in the absorption coefficient of the stretching overtone of the aromatic C-...

We describe director distortions in the nematic liquid crystal (LC) caused by a spherical particle with tangential surface orientation of the director and show that light transmittance through the distorted region is a steep function of the particle's size. The effect allows us to propose a real-time microbial sensor based on a nontoxic lyotropic chromonic LC (LCLC) that detects and amplifies t...