Nanoindentation studies of the mechanical properties of sufficiently thin polymer films, supported by stiff substrates, indicate that the mechanical moduli are generally higher than those of the bulk. This enhancement of the effective modulus, in the thickness range of few hundred nanometers, is indicated to be associated with the propagation and impingement of the indentation tip induced stres...

The instability of implants after placement inside the body is one of the main obstacles to clinically succeed in periodontal and orthopedic applications. Adherence of fibroblasts instead of osteoblasts to implant surfaces usually results in formation of scar tissue and loss of the implant. Thus, selective bioadhesivity of osteoblasts is a desired characteristic for implant materials. In this s...

We have used variable cooling rate ellipsometric measurements to probe the slow dynamics in thin supported polystyrene films. For the slowest cooling rates (approximately 1 K/min) the measured Tg values are reduced below the bulk value with the measured Tg of 341 K for a 6 nm film. As the cooling rate is increased the Tg reductions become smaller until at cooling rates >90 K/min there is only s...

bis(2-r-ind)zrcl2 (r: h or phenyl) was supported on different types of silica by in situ impregnation method and used for ethylene polymerization. in this method, the step of catalyst loading on support was eliminated and common alkyl aluminum (triisobutylaluminum, tiba) cocatalyst was used instead of expensive methyl aluminiumoxane (mao) cocatalyst in the polymerization. the effect of surface ...

Polymer coatings are frequently utilized to control and modify substrate properties. The performance of the coatings is often determined by the first polymer layers between the substrate and the bulk polymer material, which are termed interphase. Standard methods have failed to completely characterize this interphase, because its properties change significantly over a few nanometers. Here we de...

Much of the short-range forces and structures of softly supported DMPC bilayers has been described previously. However, one interesting feature of the measured force-distance profile that remained unexplained is the presence of a long-range exponentially decaying repulsive force that is not observed between rigidly supported bilayers on solid mica substrate surfaces. This observation is discuss...

Solid supported bilayer lipid membranes are model systems to mimic natural cell membranes in order to understand structural and functional properties of such systems. The use of a model system allows for the use of a wide variety of analytical tools including atomic force microscopy, impedance spectroscopy, neutron reflectometry, and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. Among the large numbe...

Solid-supported lipid membranes are important for their roles in fundamental biophysical research as well as in applications such as biosensors. In our study, lipopolymers containing alkyl side chains were synthesized and a mixture of the lipopolymer and free lipids was preorganized at the air-water interface and then transferred to a solid substrate using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. A pho...