Solubilization and Photostabilization in a Sodium Deoxycholate Hydrogel of a Neutral Conjugated Thiophene Oligomer and Polymer

Oligo(3-hexylthiophene-co-1,4-phenylene) and poly(3-hexylthiophene) were solubilized in sodium deoxycholate self-assemblies in water solutions and hydrogels. The oligomer and polymer were incorporated as monomers into the self-assemblies with sodium deoxycholate aggregates, leading to the photoprotection of these neutral conjugated and water insoluble molecules. Dynamic light scattering, rheology and fluorescence experiments established that the deoxycholate aggregation and gel formation properties were not altered with the incorporation of the oligomer or polymer into the deoxycholate self-assemblies, showing that this adaptable host system with some molecular recognition elements is a viable strategy to incorporate neutral conjugated molecules into hydrogels

Thymol as Starting Material for the Development of a Biobased Material with Enhanced Antimicrobial Activity: Synthesis, Characterization, and Potential Application

A biobased material, polythymol (PTF), was prepared using thymol, a monoterpene obtained from the essential oil of Thymus vulgaris (Lamiaceae), as a starting material with the aim of enhancing the antimicrobial properties of this natural product. Initially, different processes were performed in order to optimize the reaction conditions to obtain a macromolecule with a high purity and yield. PTF was characterized using different techniques, such as NMR, infrared, UV-Vis, and thermogravimetric analyses. The antimicrobial activity of both PTF and thymol was evaluated against different microorganisms, including S. aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and C. albicans. The obtained MIC values showed a higher potential for PTF than the monomer thymol—for example, against S. aureus (500 and 31.5 µg·mL−1 for thymol and PTF, respectively). Therefore, the obtained results show that the polymerization of thymol afforded more active biomaterial than the starting monomeric antimicrobial compound (thymol), suggesting that PTF is an important biomaterial

Electrochemical Synthesis of the Copolymer Poly(2-methoxy-5-bromo- p

The present work describes an electrochemical method to produce the copolymer poly(2-methoxy-5-bromo-p-phenylenevinylene)/(2,5-dicyano-p-phenylenevinylene) (cop-MB-PPV/DCN-PPV). This copolymer was proposed due to its D-A characteristic produced by the presence of the electron-donating methoxy moiety and the electron-withdrawing dicyano moiety. the copolymer was electrochemically synthetized by cathodic reduction of the convenient starting materials dissolved in a DMF/LiClO4 using a mercury pool acting as working electrode. the copolymer was characterized by infrared (IR), UV-Vis and fluorescence (FL) spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV). All the results were compared to the MB-PPV homopolymer. the analysis of electrochemical measurements and IR indicated that the cop-MB-PPV/DCN-PPV was obtained through the formation of blocks containing DCN-PPV units linked by blocks containing MB-PPV units. the electronic structure, performed by CV, UV-Vis and FL showed that the conduction band is more stabilized in the copolymer than in homopolymer. Furthermore, the FL spectra indicated that the light emission of the cop-MB-PPV/DCN-PPV in chloroform solution occurs by means of excimer formation