Kulkarni, Jayesh A.; Darjuan, Maria M.; Mercer, Joanne E.; Chen, Sam; van der Meel, Roy; Thewalt, Jenifer L.; Tam, Yuen Yi C.; Cullis, Pieter R.
On the Formation and Morphology of Lipid Nanoparticles Containing Ionizable Cationic Lipids and siRNA
Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) containing short interfering RNA (LNP-siRNA) and optimized ionizable cationic lipids are now clinically validated systems for silencing disease-causing genes in hepatocytes following intravenous administration. However, the mechanism of formation and certain structural features of LNP-siRNA remain obscure. These systems are formed from lipid mixtures (cationic lipid,…
Densely grafted liquid crystalline copper phthalocyanine side chain polymer: synthesis and characterization
Heinrich, C. David; Kostakoğlu, Sinem Tuncel; Thelakkat, Mukundan
A new polymeric donor material with pendant copper phthalocyanine side chains (PCuPc) was synthesized. The excellent suitability of a grafting-to approach, combining the controlled radical polymerization of propargyloxystyrene followed by “click” chemistry, was demonstrated. A polymer with a high molecular weight (Mn = 88 000 g mol−1) and a narrow…
Fabrication and characterization of Ba3Zn2Fe24O41 (Zn2Z) hexaferrites films on silicon substrates
Al-Hwaitat, Eman; Al-Hussein, Mahmoud; Mahmood, Sami H.; Bsoul, Ibrahim
We report the fabrication and characterization of Ba3Zn2Fe24O41 (Zn2Z) hexaferrite films on silicon substrates using a simple sol-gel drop casting method. A combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), grazing incidence wide angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) was used to characterize the structural and…
Effect of Source on the Properties and Behavior of Cellulose Nanocrystal Suspensions
Schütz, Christina; Van Rie, Jonas; Eyley, Samuel; Gençer, Alican; van Gorp, Hans; Rosenfeldt, Sabine; Kang, Kyongok; Thielemans, Wim
Sulfuric acid hydrolysis of native cellulose fibers results in colloidally stable suspensions of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). We have investigated the effect of the cellulose source on the suspension properties of CNCs extracted from cotton and wood sources using a comparable preparation strategy. The structural properties were revealed to be similar…
Emulsion-Based RIR-MAPLE Deposition of Conjugated Polymers: Primary Solvent Effect and Its Implications on Organic Solar Cell Performance
Ge, Wangyao; Li, Nan K.; McCormick, Ryan D.; Lichtenberg, Eli; Yingling, Yaroslava G.; Stiff-Roberts, Adrienne D.
Emulsion-based, resonant infrared matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (RIR-MAPLE) has been demonstrated as an alternative technique to deposit conjugated polymer films for photovoltaic applications; yet, a fundamental understanding of how the emulsion target characteristics translate into film properties and solar cell performance is unclear. Such understanding is crucial to enable the…
Phosphorylation-induced conformational dynamics in an intrinsically disordered protein and potential role in phenotypic heterogeneity
Kulkarni, Prakash; Jolly, Mohit Kumar; Jia, Dongya; Mooney, Steven M.; Bhargava, Ajay; Kagohara, Luciane T.; Chen, Yihong; Hao, Pengyu; He, Yanan; Veltri, Robert W.; Grishaev, Alexander; Weninger, Keith; Levine, Herbert; Orban, John
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) that lack a unique 3D structure and comprise a large fraction of the human proteome play important roles in numerous cellular functions. Prostate-Associated Gene 4 (PAGE4) is an IDP that acts as a potentiator of the Activator Protein-1 (AP-1) transcription factor. Homeodomain-Interacting Protein Kinase 1 (HIPK1)…
Polyurethanes with POSS pendent on flexible hard segments: Morphology and glass transition
Koutsoumpis, Stefanos; Ozimek, Jan; Raftopoulos, Konstantinos N.; Hebda, Edyta; Klonos, Panagiotis; Papadakis, Christine M.; Pielichowski, Krzysztof; Pissis, Polycarpos
Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanne (POSS) moieties are tethered on a polyurethane chain, as side groups on the hard domains, which are based on the flexible hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI). Their effect on morphology, and consequently on molecular dynamics, is studied in detail by microscopy, scattering, spectroscopic, thermal, and dielectric techniques. Albeit the…
Unusual Dynamics of Concentration Fluctuations in Solutions of Weakly Attractive Globular Proteins
Bucciarelli, Saskia; Casal-Dujat, Lucía; De Michele, Cristiano; Sciortino, Francesco; Dhont, Jan; Bergenholtz, Johan; Farago, Bela; Schurtenberger, Peter; Stradner, Anna
The globular protein γB-crystallin exhibits a complex phase behavior, where liquid–liquid phase separation characterized by a critical volume fraction ϕc = 0.154 and a critical temperature Tc = 291.8 K coexists with dynamical arrest on all length scales at volume fractions around ϕ ≈ 0.3–0.35, and an arrest line that…
Dramatic influence of patchy attractions on short-time protein diffusion under crowded conditions
Bucciarelli, Saskia; Myung, Jin Suk; Farago, Bela; Das, Shibananda; Vliegenthart, Gerard A.; Holderer, Olaf; Winkler, Roland G.; Schurtenberger, Peter; Gompper, Gerhard; Stradner, Anna
In the dense and crowded environment of the cell cytoplasm, an individual protein feels the presence of and interacts with all surrounding proteins. While we expect this to strongly influence the short-time diffusion coefficient Ds of proteins on length scales comparable to the nearest-neighbor distance, this quantity is difficult to…
Orthogonal Ambipolar Semiconductor Nanostructures for Complementary Logic Gates
Huang, Weiguo; Markwart, Jens C.; Briseno, Alejandro L.; Hayward, Ryan C.
We report orthogonal ambipolar semiconductors that exhibit hole and electron transport in perpendicular directions based on aligned films of nanocrystalline “shish-kebabs” containing poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and N,N′-di-n-octyl-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (PDI) as p- and n-type components, respectively. Polarized optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray…