12 research outputs found
Tunable Protein and Bacterial Cell Adsorption on Colloidally Templated Superhydrophobic Polythiophene Films
A facile approach for enabling or inhibiting the adsorption of protein and adhesion of bacterial cells on a potential-induced reversibly wettable polythiophene film is described. The superhydrophobic polymeric surface was first prepared by a two-step process that combines the layering of polystyrene (PS) latex particles via a LangmuirâBlodgett (LB)-like technique followed by cyclic voltammetric (CV)âelectrodeposition of polythiophene from a terthiophene ester monomer. The polythiophene conducting polymer coating enabled control of the wettability of the surface by simply changing its redox property via potential switching. The influence of morphology on this switching behavior is also described. The wettability in return controls the adsorption of protein and adhesion of bacterial cells. For instance, the undoped polythiophene film, which is superhydrophobic, inhibits the adhesion of fibrinogen proteins and Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells. On the other hand, the doped film, which is hydrophilic, leads to increased attachment of both protein and bacteria. Unlike most synthetic antiwetting surfaces, the as-prepared superhydrophobic coating is nonfluorinated. It maintains its superhydrophobic property at a wide range of pH (pH 1â13) and temperature (below ?10 °C and between 4 and 80 °C). Moreover, the surface demonstrated self-cleaning properties at a sliding angle as low as 3° ± 1. The proposed methodology and material should find application in the preparation of smart or tunable biomaterial surfaces that can be either resistant or susceptible to proteins and bacterial cell adhesion by a simple potential switching
Superhydrophobic Colloidally Textured Polythiophene Film as Superior Anticorrosion Coating
In this paper, we demonstrated for the first time the
use of electrodeposited
superhydrophobic conducting polythiophene coating to effectively protect
the underlying steel substrate from corrosion attack: by first preventing
water from being absorbed onto the coating, thus preventing the corrosive
chemicals and corrosion products from diffusing through the coating,
and second by causing an anodic shift in the corrosion potential as
it galvanically couples to the metal substrate. Standard electrochemical
measurements revealed the steel coated with antiwetting nanostructured
polythiophene film, which was immersed in chloride solution of different
pH and temperature for up to 7 days, is very well protected from corrosion
evidenced by protection efficiency of greater than 95%. Fabrication
of the dual properties superhydrophobic anticorrosion nanostructured
conducting polymer coating follows a two-step coating procedure that
is very simple and can be used to coat any metallic surface
Tunable Protein and Bacterial Cell Adsorption on Colloidally Templated Superhydrophobic Polythiophene Films
A facile approach for enabling <i>or</i> inhibiting the adsorption of protein and adhesion of bacterial cells on a potential-induced reversibly wettable polythiophene film is described. The superhydrophobic polymeric surface was first prepared by a two-step process that combines the layering of polystyrene (PS) latex particles via a LangmuirâBlodgett (LB)-<i>like</i> technique followed by cyclic voltammetric (CV)âelectrodeposition of polythiophene from a terthiophene ester monomer. The polythiophene conducting polymer coating enabled control of the wettability of the surface by simply changing its redox property via potential switching. The influence of morphology on this switching behavior is also described. The wettability in return controls the adsorption of protein and adhesion of bacterial cells. For instance, the undoped polythiophene film, which is superhydrophobic, inhibits the adhesion of fibrinogen proteins and <i>Escherichia coli</i> (<i>E. coli</i>) cells. On the other hand, the doped film, which is hydrophilic, leads to increased attachment of both protein and bacteria. Unlike most synthetic antiwetting surfaces, the as-prepared superhydrophobic coating is nonfluorinated. It maintains its superhydrophobic property at a wide range of pH (pH 1â13) and temperature (below â10 °C and between 4 and 80 °C). Moreover, the surface demonstrated self-cleaning properties at a sliding angle as low as 3° ± 1. The proposed methodology and material should find application in the preparation of smart or tunable biomaterial surfaces that can be either resistant or susceptible to proteins and bacterial cell adhesion by a simple potential switching
Freestanding Macroporous Silicon and Pyrolyzed Polyacrylonitrile As a Composite Anode for Lithium Ion Batteries
Silicon continues to draw great interest as an anode
material for
lithium ion batteries due to its large specific capacity for lithium.
Macroporous silicon produced by electrochemical etching is one of
several anode materials of interest, but its energy density is oftentimes
limited due to its attachment to an unreactive silicon substrate.
Here, we present a novel âlift-offâ method by which
a freestanding macroporous silicon film (MPSF) is electrochemically
detached from the underlying bulk silicon and combined with pyrolyzed
polyacrylonitrile (PAN), a conductive polymer that forms a conjugated-chain
chemical structure. We report the performance of these silicon thin
films with and without pyrolyzed PAN