Watch the video interview of Peter Budd (University of Manchester) as he talks about polymer membranes for gas separation.
Click here to watch the whole video on YouTube
If you’d like to know more about this topic why not read the review on ‘Highly permeable polymers for gas separation membranes‘ by Peter M. Budd and Neil B. McKeown, Polym. Chem., 2010, 1, 63-68.
It’s still not too late to submit an article for the Polymer Bioconjugates themed issue due to be published in Polymer Chemistry. The submission deadline is 5th January 2011.
The guest editors of the themed issue are Professor Jan van Hest (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) and Professor Brent Sumerlin (Southern Methodist University, USA).
Manuscripts should be submitted via the RSC’s on-line submission service via the journal homepage. Please clearly state in your submission letter that your manuscript is “submitted in response to the call for papers for the Polymer Bioconjugates themed issue”.
If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office.
Functional, micropatterned and multicomponent polymer brush surfaces were rapidly fabricated using base-catalyzed thiol–isocyanate “click” reactions, by a team of US Scientists.
The team led by Derek Patton at the University of Southern Mississippi, USA, demonstrated thiol–NCO click chemistry can be used as a modular platform for rapid and robust fabrication of highly functional, multicomponent surfaces. The team expect that this approach can be extended to a broad range of surfaces, including three-dimensional particle substrates.
Interested to know more? Why not read the full communication available for free.
Thiol-yne chemistry is an efficient mechanism to synthesize A2B star polymers. In the latest Polymer Chemistry Hot Article, Daniel Savin and co-workers at University of Southern Mississippi, USA, report the synthesis and solution characterization of polypeptide-based stars that serve as lipid mimetic molecules.
Using the thiol–yne convergent synthesis, the team envision a modular approach to functionalize proteins or oligopeptides with lipophilic chains that can imbed seamlessly into a cell membrane.
Fancy knowing more? Why not read the full article for free here:
Watch the video interview of Filip Du Prez as he talks with Dave Haddleton about the use of click chemistry in polymer synthesis.
Click here to watch the whole video on YouTube
Eva Harth talks to Marie Cote about chemistry as a way of expression, nanosponge technology and her love of colour and structures
What inspired you to become a scientist?
I always wanted to find out how things really worked and I was first interested in animals. Later on I became interested in more biological questions; I bought books on how cells and plants function. I found that chemistry is a very creative way of expression – artists can make paintings but chemists can make compounds, which is also a way to express yourself. It’s always novel and nearly never repetitive in a way. This is what I liked about it…
Read the full interview for free in Highlights in Chemical Biology
Selenium-containing block copolymers and their oxidation-responsive aggregates by Ning Ma, Ying Li, Huifeng Ren, Huaping Xu, Zhibo Li and Xi Zhang is the paper featured on the front cover of Polymer Chemistry issue 10.
The paper reports self-assembled responsive aggregates made from selenium-containing polymers. These polymer aggregates are more sensitive to oxidants than sulfur-containing analogues. The team hope this behavior could form the basis of a new drug delivery system.
The polymer is a selenium-containing amphiphilic block copolymer with a hydrophobic polyselenide block flanked by two hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) blocks.
Interested to know more? Why not read the full article for free: Selenium-containing block copolymers and their oxidation-responsive aggregates.
Jeroen Cornelissen and co-workers at Radboud University Nijmegen and the University of Twente created a series of thermoresponsive giant biohybrid amphiphiles.
The polymer component was a random copolymer of ethylene glycol methyl ether acrylate and methoxy ethoxy ethyl acrylate formed by atom transfer radical polymerisation. The team linked the hydrophobic polymer to enhanced green fluorescent protein using a copper-catalysed azide–alkyne cycloaddition. Slow heating allows the giant amphiphiles to self-assemble into spherical micelles with a diameter of approximately 60 nm.
Interested to know more? Read the full article for free here: Christine Lavigueur, Jordi González García, Linda Hendriks, Richard Hoogenboom, Jeroen J. L. M. Cornelissen and Roeland J. M. Nolte, Polym. Chem., 2011, DOI:10.1039/C0PY00229A
ChemComm is delighted to invite nominations for the very first ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship. The lectureship, which will be awarded annually, will recognise an emerging scientist in the early stages of their independent academic career. Deadline for nominations: 28th February 2011. Visit the ChemComm blog for more information.
Congratulations to Yohei Kotsuchibashi of Kagoshima University for winning the Polymer Chemistry poster prize at the 6th International Symposium on Stimuli-Responsive Materials.
The title of his winning poster was “Stimuli-Responsive Self-Assembly System That Can Form and Stabilize Nanoparticles at the Desired Size by Sample Mixing and Heating/Cooling of the Selected Block Copolymers”.
Yohei Kotsuchibashi works in Professor Takao Aoyagi’s group at Kagoshima University. The 6th International Symposium on Stimuli-Responsive Materials was held 26-27th October 2010 in Hattiesburg, USA.
