Amphiphilic macromolecules containing a polystyrene-adherent peptide domain and a cell-repellent poly(ethylene glycol) domain were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as a cytophobic surface coating. Such cytophobic, or cell-repellent, coatings are of interest for varied medical and biotechnological applications. The composition of the polystyrene binding peptide domain was identified using an...

Adherent mammalian cells dynamically interact with their extracellular matrix (ECM) and culture substrate. To accommodate this sensitivity, standard culture techniques typically utilize tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS), a treated polystyrene substrate that promotes cell attachment. However, TCPS cannot be easily integrated into microfluidic devices as it is incompatible with conventional fabri...

a copolymer of styrene and methyl styrene was synthesized by nitroxide - mediated “living” free radical polymerization )nmp). n-bromosuccinimide was used as a brominating agent to obtain a copolymer with bromine as its end group. this brominated copolymer was used as macro initiators for atom transfer  radical  polymerization  (atrp).  chemical  modifcation  of  the  clay  and transformation of...

A method is described to measure the refractive index dispersion with wavelength of optically trapped solid particles in air. Knowledge of the refraction properties of solid particles is critical for the study of aerosol; both in the laboratory and in the atmosphere for climate studies. Single micron-sized polystyrene beads were optically trapped in air using a vertically aligned counter-propag...

In recent years, polymer/carbon nanotube composites have attracted increased attention because the polymer properties have significantly improved. In this paper, a single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) is used to reinforce polystyrene matrix. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to study two periodic systems a long CNT-reinforced polystyrene composite and amorphous polystyrene matrix it...

Differences in attachment, proliferation, and differentiation were measured for human embryonic stem (hES) cells cultured on various substrata coated with Matrigel, a blend of extracellular matrix proteins derived from murine tumor cells. The authors observed that hES cells attach and grow poorly on Matrigel adsorbed onto polystyrene, while they proliferate when exposed to Matrigel adsorbed ont...

Dilution of contact, hard sphere-like, nanoparticle-nanoparticle interactions upon mixing plays a key role in explaining nanoparticle dispersion in athermal all-polymer nanocomposites, as illustrated for polystyrene-nanoparticle/linear-polystyrene blends as a model system.

Recently Budkowski et al. used nuclear reaction analysis to study polymer brushes consisting of end-tethered deuterated polystyrene tails within a polystyrene homopolymer matrix. They measured the concentration-depth profile as a function of the surface