5 research outputs found
Hydrogel-Based Glucose Sensors: Effects of Phenylboronic Acid Chemical Structure on Response
Phenylboronic acids (PBAs) are being
considered for glucose sensing
and controlled insulin release, because of their affinity for diol-containing
molecules. The interaction of immobilized PBAs in a hydrogel matrix
with glucose can lead to volumetric changes that have been used to
monitor glucose concentration and release insulin. Although the interaction
of PBAs with diol-containing molecules has been intensively studied,
the response of PBA-modified hydrogels as a function of the specific
PBA chemistry is not well understood. To understand the interaction
of immobilized PBAs with glucose in hydrogel systems under physiological
conditions, the glucose-dependent volumetric changes of a series of
hydrogel sensors functionalized with different classes of PBAs were
investigated. The volume change induced by PBA-glucose interactions
is converted to the diffracted wavelength shift by a crystalline colloidal
array embedded in the hydrogel matrix. The PBAs studied contain varying
structural parameters such as the position of the boronic acid on
the phenyl ring, different substituents on PBAs and different linkers
to the hydrogel backbone. The volumetric change of the PBA modified
hydrogels is found to be highly dependent on the chemical structure
of the immobilized PBAs. The PBAs that appear to provide linear volumetric
responses to glucose are found to also have slow response kinetics
and significant hysteresis, while PBAs that show nonlinear responses
have fast response kinetics and small hysteresis. Electron-withdrawing
substituents, which reduce the p<i>K</i><sub>a</sub> of
PBAs, either increase or decrease the magnitude of response, depending
on the exact chemical structure. The response rate is increased by
PBAs with electron-withdrawing substituents. Addition of a methylene
bridge between the PBA and hydrogel backbone leads to a significant
decrease in the response magnitude. PBAs with specific desirable features
can be selected from the pool of available PBAs and other PBA derivatives
with desired properties can be designed according to the findings
reported here
Polymer Brushes Patterned with Micrometer-Scale Chemical Gradients Using Laminar Co-Flow
We
present a facile microfluidic method for forming narrow chemical
gradients in polymer brushes. Co-flow of an alkylating agent solution
and a neat solvent in a microfluidic channel forms a diffusion-driven
concentration gradient, and thus a gradient in reaction rate at the
interface of the two flows, leading to a quaternization gradient in
the underlying poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) polymer brush.
The spatial distribution of the quaternized polymer brush is characterized
by confocal Raman microscopy. The quaternization gradient length in
the polymer brush can be varied with the injection flow rate and the
distance from the co-flow junction. A chemical gradient in the polymer
brush as narrow as 5 μm was created by controlling these parameters.
The chemical gradient by laminar co-flow is compared with numerical
calculations that include only one adjustable parameter: the reaction
rate constant of the polymer brush quaternization. The calculated
chemical gradient agrees with the experimental data, which validates
the numerical procedures established in this study. Flow of multiple
laminar streams of reactive agent solutions enables single-run fabrication
of brush gradients with more than one chemical property. As one example,
four laminar streamsneat solvent/benzyl bromide solution/propargyl
bromide solution/neat solventgenerate multistep gradients
of aromatic and alkyne groups. Because the alkyne functional group
is a click-reaction available site, the alkyne gradient could allow
small gradient formation with a wide variety of chemical properties
in a polymer brush
General Method for Forming Micrometer-Scale Lateral Chemical Gradients in Polymer Brushes
We report a general diffusion based
method to form micrometer-scale
lateral chemical gradients in polymer brushes via selective alkylation.
A quaternized brush gradient is derived from a concentration gradient
of alkylating agent formed by diffusion in permeable media around
a microchannel carrying the alkylating agent. Polymer brushes containing
both charge and aromatic gradients are formed using the alkylating
agents, methyl iodide and benzyl bromide, respectively. The gradients
are quantitatively characterized by confocal Raman spectroscopy and
qualitatively by fluorescence microscopy. The length and gradient
strength can be controlled by varying the diffusion time, concentrations,
and solvents of the alkylating agent solutions. This microfluidic
brush gradient generation method enables formation of 2-D chemical
potential gradients with a diversity of shapes
Hole-Mask Colloidal Nanolithography for Large-Area Low-Cost Metamaterials and Antenna-Assisted Surface-Enhanced Infrared Absorption Substrates
We use low-cost hole-mask colloidal nanolithography to manufacture large-area resonant split-ring metamaterials and measure their infrared optical properties. This novel substrate is employed for antenna-assisted surface-enhanced infrared absorption measurements using octadecanethiol (ODT) and deuterated ODT, which demonstrates easy adjustability of our material to vibrational modes. Our method has the potential to make resonant plasmon-enhanced infrared spectroscopy a standard lab tool in biology, pharmacology, and medicine
Autonomic Molecular Transport by Polymer Films Containing Programmed Chemical Potential Gradients
Materials which induce
molecular motion without external input
offer unique opportunities for spatial manipulation of molecules.
Here, we present the use of polyacrylamide hydrogel films containing
built-in chemical gradients (enthalpic gradients) to direct molecular
transport. Using a cationic tertiary amine gradient, anionic molecules
were directionally transported up to several millimeters. A 40-fold
concentration of anionic molecules dosed in aerosol form on a substrate
to a small region at the center of a radially symmetric cationic gradient
was observed. The separation of mixtures of charged dye molecules
was demonstrated using a boronic acid-to-cationic gradient where one
molecule was attracted to the boronic acid end of the gradient, and
the other to the cationic end of the gradient. Theoretical and computational
analysis provides a quantitative description of such anisotropic molecular
transport, and reveals that the gradient-imposed drift velocity is
in the range of hundreds of nanometers per second, comparable to the
transport velocities of biomolecular motors. This general concept
of enthalpy gradient-directed molecular transport should enable the
autonomous processing of a diversity of chemical species