POLY 100 |
| Certain phosphatidylcholines bearing diacetylene groups in the tails' centers form the expected spherical vesicle in solution that unexpectedly converts to a cylindrical morphology upon cooling to room temperature. These hollow 0.5 x 25 micron "tubules" have a number of potential applications, such as industrial and pharmaceutical encapsulation, and the polymerizability of the tails' diynes to potentially yield mechanically tough microstructures is also of great interest. Optimizing tubule dimensions for a particular application may be possible through the addition of co-surfactants or large molecules, e.g., it is known that the protein lysozyme added to the cooling spherical vesicles produces gently-tapered hollow cones, rather than the cylinders formed in protein-free systems. We have begun investigating the effects that PEO and DOPE have on tubule formation. We discovered that the addition of PEO and DOPE alter tubule morphology; PEO yields cones and DOPE causes an increase in tubule diameter. |
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General Papers: Polymers and Biology
6:00 PM-8:00 PM, Sunday, 10 September 2006 Moscone Center -- Hall D, Poster
Sci-Mix
Division of Polymer Chemistry |