Poly(amide-imide) materials for transparent and flexible displays.

The key component currently missing for the next generation of transparent and flexible displays is a high-performance polymer material that is flexible, while showing optical and thermal properties of glass. It must be transparent to visible light and show a low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). While specialty plastics such as aromatic polyimides are promising, reducing their CTE and improving transparency simultaneously proved challenging, with increasing coloration the main problem to be resolved. We report a new poly(amide-imide) material that is flexible and displays glass-like behavior with a CTE value of 4 parts per million/°C. This novel polymer was successfully used as a substrate to fabricate transparent and flexible indium-gallium-zinc oxide thin-film transistors.

Poly(ethylene glycol)- and carboxylate-functionalized gold nanoparticles using polymer linkages: single-step synthesis, high stability, and plasmonic detection of proteins.

Gold nanoparticles with suitable surface functionalities have been widely used as a versatile nanobioplatform. However, functionalized gold nanoparticles using thiol-terminated ligands have a tendency to aggregate, particularly in many enzymatic reaction buffers containing biological thiols, because of ligand exchange reactions. In the present study, we developed a one-step synthesis of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)ylated gold nanoparticles using poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) in PEG as a polyol solvent. Because of the chelate effect of polymeric functionalities on the gold surface, the resulting PEGylated gold nanoparticles (Au@P-PEG) are very stable under the extreme conditions at which the thiol-monolayer-protected gold nanoparticles are easily coagulated. Using the solvent mixture of PEG and ethylene glycol (EG) and subsequent hydrolysis, gold nanoparticles bearing mixed functionalities of PEG and carboxylate are generated. The resulting particles exhibit selective adsorption of positively charged chymotrypsin (ChT) without nonselective adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA). The present nanoparticle system has many advantages, including high stability, simple one-step synthesis, biocompatibility, and excellent binding specificity; thus, this system can be used as a versatile platform for potential bio-related applications, such as separation, sensing, imaging, and assays.

Self-assembled peptide architecture with a tooth shape: folding into shape.

Molecular self-assembly is the spontaneous association of molecules into structured aggregates by which nature builds complex functional systems. While numerous examples have focused on 2D self-assembly to understand the underlying mechanism and mimic this process to create artificial nano- and microstructures, limited progress has been made toward 3D self-assembly on the molecular level. Here we show that a helical ß-peptide foldamer, an artificial protein fragment, with well-defined secondary structure self-assembles to form an unprecedented 3D molecular architecture with a molar tooth shape in a controlled manner in aqueous solution. Powder X-ray diffraction analysis, combined with global optimization and Rietveld refinement, allowed us to propose its molecular arrangement. We found that four individual left-handed helical monomers constitute a right-handed superhelix in a unit cell of the assembly, similar to that found in the supercoiled structure of collagen.

Coordination power adjustment of surface-regulating polymers for shaping gold polyhedral nanocrystals.

PVP (poly(vinyl pyrrolidone)) is a common polymer that behaves as a surface-regulating agent that shapes metal nanocrystals in the polyol process. We have used different polymers containing tertiary amide groups, namely PVCL (poly(vinyl caprolactam)) and PDMAm (poly(N,N-dimethyl acrylamide)), for the synthesis of gold polyhedrons, including octahedrons, cuboctahedrons, cubes, and higher polygons, under the present polyol reaction conditions. The basicity and surface coordination power of the polymers are in the order of PVCL, PVP, and PDMAm. A correlation is observed between the coordination power of the polymers and the resulting gold nanocrystal size. Strong coordination and electron donation from the polymer functional groups to the gold surface restrict particle growth rates, which leads to small nanocrystals. The use of PVCL can yield gold polyhedral structures with small sizes, which cannot be achieved in the reactions with PVP. Simultaneous hydrolysis of the amide group in PDMAm leads to carboxylate functionality, which is very useful for generating chemical and bioconjugates through the formation of ester and amide bonds.

Shape auxiliary approach for carboxylate-functionalized gold nanocrystals.

A shape auxiliary approach for the synthesis of shape-controlled gold nanocrystals with functional moieties is established; carboxylate-functionalized gold polyhedra were successfully synthesized in a one-pot reaction in the presence of poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate), which contains the dimethylaminoethyl group as a shape auxiliary.