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Confinement and Liquid Crystal Films
Liquid crystals (LCs) are known to act as good lubricants, however, the reason for this remains unclear. One contributing factor is thought to be the formation of ordered layers... -
The interpenetration of two poly(ethylene oxide) polymer brushes under confin...
Coating two surfaces with polymer brushes has been shown on many occasions to reduce friction by orders of magnitude. These ultra-low frictions are believed to stem from be the... -
Quantum and thermal critical scaling in XY-dipolar antiferromagnet LiErF4
We have established the material LiErF4 as a dipolar antiferromagnet with planar anisotropy, exhibiting both classical and quantum phase transitions. Where, thermal transition... -
Polymer displacement by surfactant at colloidal interface
The interactions of neutral polymers with surfactants have a key role in detergency and are systems of current academic and commercial interest. Here, we propose to study the... -
Competition at the nanoparticle surface: one polymer, two surfactants, many p...
Polymers and surfactants are key components in detergency. Understanding their interactions is essential to formulate smartly. Detergent formulations usually contain a mixture... -
SANS Study of pH-Triggered Behaviour in Pluronic-Flurbiprofen Solutions: In v...
Hydrophobic drug encapsulation is one of the widely used strategies to overcome the poor adsorption and bioavailability of these drugs in vivo. Water-soluble amphiphilic... -
Adsorbtion from nematic mixtures
The aim is to measure the preferential adsorption of one component in a nematic mixture. The base is 4-pentyl 4¿- cyanobiphenyl (5CB) and it is doped with 4-pentyl 4¿-... -
Surface structures of polycations in confined geometries
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... -
Confinement Effects on Fluorinated Liquid Crystal Adsorption
The adsorption of a liquid crystal dopant to a surface can have a significant impact on its properties such as electro-optic response and lubrication. The interesting adsorption... -
Polymer conjugates for drug delivery
Complex polymer architectures such as comb polymers have been studied for their highly customisable chemical properties. Potential applications have been identified in a wide... -
Can surfactants be pushed out of polymer layers by applying compression?
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... -
Measuring the structure of a poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) gel layer under compress...
Polymers adsorbed or otherwise attached to interfaces provide an extremely powerful tool to control the forces that act between interfaces. The functionality of these attached... -
Fluorination Effects at Liquid Crystal Surfaces
The adsorption of a liquid crystal dopant to a surface can have a significant impact on its properties such as electro-optic response and lubrication. Both the interesting... -
Confinement and Lubrication in Liquid Crystal Films
Liquid crystals (LCs) are known to act as good lubricants, however, the reason for this remains unclear. One contributing factor is thought to be the formation of ordered layers... -
Adsorbtion from nematic mixtures: bulk characterization
The aim is to measure any tendency towards phase separation in a nematic mixture to complement an adsorption study on the same mixture. The base is 4-pentyl 4¿- cyanobiphenyl...