103 datasets found

Polyurethane foams (PUF) are commonly prepared by mixing Pluronic type copolymers and isocyanate reactive monomers in the presence of additives e.g. catalysts, blowing agents...

The gas hydrates offer potential as hydrogen and carbon dioxide storage materials for use either in transport applications or for carbon sequestration. We have discovered a...

Cubosomes and hexosomes are particles with internal liquid crystal structures of the bicontinuous cubic or reverse hexagonal nanostructures respectively. The nanostructure...

For many applications such as paints, foods and drug formulations, aggregation of colloidal particles is prevented by combining polymer and surfactant adsorption. Key to this...

This proposal seeks to identify and characterise the adsorption of primary linear amides that adsorb to the surface from the bulk of a polymer melt. These layers are...

Amino acid based surfactants have been known for many years but so far few detailed studies have been carried out on their properties. We are using amino acids extracted from...

In the previous round we trialled use of the new techniques enabled on Larmor which permit simultaneous measurements of nanoscale and macroscale structure. These experiments...

Progress in the development of nano-sized hybrid therapeutics and nano-sized drug delivery systems - "nanomedicines" - over the last decade has been remarkable. One key...

The key to the use of polymer vesicles as effective molecular delivery systems is in the ability to efficiently encapsulate a molecular payload within the vesicle. We would like...

Iron oxide nanoparticles are one of the first nanomaterials to be approved for use in the body. However, research into particle binding and incorporation to, as well as...

Bacterial LPS (endotoxin) is a key determinant of host/pathogen interactions. We propose to investigate the role of membrane lateral phase separation on LPS insertion into model...

Using a simple model we wish to mimic the lipid structure of the stratum corneum (the top layer of the skin). The simple model offers several advantages to our research area...

These experiments are part of a much broader programme at the University of Reading. focused on the use of water-soluble half-acetylated chitosan as a mucoadhesive polymer,...

New types of water-in-CO2 microemulsions using mixed surfactant systems will be investigated by high-pressure SANS (HP-SANS). Exciting new results (see report on RB820030) have...

In bacteria, mechanosensitive ion channels such as MscL protect cells against osmotic shock. Although crucial for protecting cells, as with all ion channels, they have the...

We want to study the microscopic mechanisms of solvent dynamics such as water and glycerol in ahydrophilic polymer. Dielectric measurements suggest that below the glass...

Natural antimicrobials are of great interest, since they are antibiotics that act on the biological membrane, and it is believed that this makes it far more difficult for...

We have recently demonstrated, using small angle neutron scattering in combination with other techniques, that in organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) the additive...

The understanding of the plant wax-surfactant interaction process is crucial to the development of more effective pesticide and fungicide formulations, essential for improving...

A second-generation surface force style apparatus has been developed to probe the inter-surface and near-surface structures under compressive forces. Systems of current academic...