Erratum to: Solution behavior of aqueous mixtures of low and high molecular weight hydrophobic amphiphiles

Cellulose nanocrystal and Pluronic L121-based thermo-responsive composite hydrogels

Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) is a promising sustainable material with its biocompatibility, high aspect ratio, and mechanical strength. CNC-based systems have potential applications in various fields including biosensors, packaging, coating, energy storage, and pharmaceuticals. However, turning CNC into smart systems remains a challenge due to the lack of stimuli-responsiveness, limitation in compatibility with hydrophobic matrices, and their agglomeration tendency. In this work, a thermo-responsive nanocomposite system is constructed with CNCs and polymersome forming Pluronic L121 (L121), and its phase behavior and mechanical properties are investigated in detail. Two different CNC concentration (4 % and 5 %) is studied by changing the L121 concentration (1-20 %) to understand the effect of unimers and polymersomes on the CNC network. At dilute L121 concentrations (1-5 %), the composite system becomes softer but more fragile below the transition temperature. However, it becomes much stronger at higher L121 concentrations (10-20 %), and a gel network is obtained above the transition temperature. Interestingly, the elastically reinforced CNC gels exhibit greater resistance to microstructural breakdown at large strains due to the soft and deformable nature of the large polymersomes. It is also found that the gelation temperature for hydrogels is tunable with increasing L121 concentration, and the nanocomposite hydrogels displayed thermo-reversible rheological behavior.

Vesicle to micelle transition in the ternary mixture of L121/SDS/D2O: NMR, EPR and SANS studies

Proposed model depicting vesicle to mixed micelle transformation in a ternary mixture of L121/SDS/D₂O.

Applications of isothermal titration calorimetry in pure and applied research--survey of the literature from 2010

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is a biophysical technique for measuring the formation and dissociation of molecular complexes and has become an invaluable tool in many branches of science from cell biology to food chemistry. By measuring the heat absorbed or released during bond formation, ITC provides accurate, rapid, and label-free measurement of the thermodynamics of molecular interactions. In this review, we survey the recent literature reporting the use of ITC and have highlighted a number of interesting studies that provide a flavour of the diverse systems to which ITC can be applied. These include measurements of protein-protein and protein-membrane interactions required for macromolecular assembly, analysis of enzyme kinetics, experimental validation of molecular dynamics simulations, and even in manufacturing applications such as food science. Some highlights include studies of the biological complex formed by Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin C3 and the murine T-cell receptor, the mechanism of membrane association of the Parkinson's disease-associated protein α-synuclein, and the role of non-specific tannin-protein interactions in the quality of different beverages. Recent developments in automation are overcoming limitations on throughput imposed by previous manual procedures and promise to greatly extend usefulness of ITC in the future. We also attempt to impart some practical advice for getting the most out of ITC data for those researchers less familiar with the method.