Symmetry breaking and structure of a mixture of nematic liquid crystals and anisotropic nanoparticles

• Marjan Krasna,
• Matej Cvetko and
• Milan Ambrožič

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2010, 6, No. 74, doi:10.3762/bjoc.6.74

• past decade has witnessed an increased interest in the study of two-component mixtures consisting of nanoparticles (NPs) in a host material [1][2][3][4][5]. A characteristic feature of a nanoparticle is that at least one of its dimensions is of the order of nanometers. Such systems are expected to play

• by low binding energies and high temperatures. In order to discern the influence of geometrical details of NPs we consider dilute mixtures, where holds, where φ is the volume fraction of NPs and vNP (i.e., vLC) is the volume of an average nanoparticle (i.e., LC molecule). Therefore, the upper volume

• anchoring at the NP–LC interface of elongated NPs providing that Wd/K > 1. Here W is the anchoring strength, K is the characteristic nematic elastic constant and d is the length of a nanoparticle. We typically consider ensembles of N = 80 × 80 × 80 elements (i.e., LC molecules and NPs). In simulations we

New amphiphilic glycopolymers by click functionalization of random copolymers – application to the colloidal stabilisation of polymer nanoparticles and their interaction with concanavalin A lectin

• Otman Otman,
• Paul Boullanger,
• Eric Drockenmuller and
• Thierry Hamaide

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2010, 6, No. 58, doi:10.3762/bjoc.6.58

• -22), 66.93 (C-14), 62.05 (C-24), 58.07 (C-10), 50.65 (C-13), 48.40 (C-1), 40.04 (C-7), 35.00 (C-2), 31.48 (C-4), 26.00–26.50 (C-6, C-8), 18.27 (C-3). Nanoparticle formation Ethyl acetate and water were contacted for 2 h in order to obtain mutually saturated solutions. Polycaprolactone (80000 g/mol

• emulsified by sonication (ultrasonic processor Vibra Cell VCX-750) for 2 min at 525 W. De-ionized water (175 mL) was then added while stirring the solution at 700–800 rpm. The nanoparticle suspension was then concentrated at atmospheric pressure to 30–35 mL by stirring and heating to 70–80 °C. The sizes of

• containing D-mannose with con A In a 20 mL flask, 8.7 mg of concanavalin A was dissolved without stirring in 10 mL of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH = 6.8, 0.1 M) over 16 hours. The flask was then stored at 4 °C. The nanoparticle stock solution (200 mg of dry matter in 3.5 mL H2O) was diluted in PBS and