A photo-switchable polyelectrolyte brush that can prepare dual-component protein patterns by electrostatic attraction has been developed by scientists at Cornell University, USA. Varying the UV exposure of the cationic brush can lead to either a fully charge-reversed brush or patterned cationic/anionic binary brush. The team say this is the first time that a polyelectrolyte brush’s charge has been easily switched from cationic to anionic by UV radiation.
Youyong Xu, Yosuke Hoshi and Christopher K. Ober, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 13789-13792
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