Latex imaging by environmental STEM: application to the study of the surfactant outcome in hybrid alkyd/acrylate systems

Film Forming Nanogels for Needle-free Transdermal Vaccination

Transcutaneous immunization (TCI) provides a valuable alternative approach to conventional vaccination because of the high accessibility and the exceptional immunological characteristics of the skin, but its application is limited by the low permeability of the stratum corneum. Although nanogels (NGs) have proven to enhance skin penetration of macromolecules with minimum damage, their use in TCI remains almost unexplored. In this context, this article evaluates the performance of novel film forming NGs (FF-NGs) as TCI. This TCI platform consists of NGs with multilobular morphology that positively combines the properties of crosslinked poly(N-vinylcaprolactam), like thermoresponsiveness and the ability to load and release a cargo, with the film forming capacity of low Tg lobes. FF-NGs and formed films were characterized at different levels. Formed films show to be able to uniformly load an antigenic protein and release it with a profile depending on the temperature and on their FF-NGs content. In-vivo studies have demonstrated that FF-NGs promote the penetration of not only an antigenic protein but also an adjuvant until the immunocompetent area of skin, generating an adjuvant-dependent specific immune response. Finally, this study provides a successful proof of concept that FF-NGs could be a powerful tool for transcutaneous release of complex formulations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Study of the surfactant role in latex-aerogel systems by scanning transmission electron microscopy on aqueous suspensions

For insulation applications, boards thinner than 2 cm are under design with specific thermal conductivities lower than 15 mW m^-1  K^-1 . This requires binding slightly hydrophobic aerogels which are highly nanoporous granular materials. To reach this step and ensure insulation board durability at the building scale, it is compulsory to design, characterise and analyse the microstructure at the nanoscale. It is indeed necessary to understand how the solid material is formed from a liquid suspension. This issue is addressed in this paper through wet-STEM experiments carried out in an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM). Latex-surfactant binary blends and latex-surfactant-aerogel ternary systems are studied, with two different surfactants of very different chemical structures. Image analysis is used to distinguish the different components and get quantitative morphological parameters which describe the sample architecture. The evolution of such morphological parameters during water evaporation permits a good understanding of the role of the surfactant.

The application of STEM and in situ controlled dehydration to bacterial systems using ESEM

Transmission imaging with an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) (Wet STEM) is a recent development in the field of electron microscopy, combining the simple preparation inherent to ESEM work with an alternate form of contrast available through a STEM detector. Because the technique is relatively new, there is little information available on how best to apply this technique and which samples it is best suited for. This work is a description of the sample preparation and microscopy employed by the authors for imaging bacteria with Wet STEM (scanning transmission electron microscopy). Three different bacterial samples will be presented in this study: first, used as a model system, is Escherichia coli for which the contrast mechanisms of STEM are demonstrated along with the visual effects of a dehydration-induced collapse. This collapse, although clearly in some sense artifactual, is thought to lead to structurally meaningful morphological information. Second, Wet STEM is applied to two distinct bacterial systems to demonstrate the novel types of information accessible by this approach: the plastic-producing Cupriavidus necator along with wild-type and ΔmreC knockout mutants of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Cupriavidus necator is shown to exhibit clear internal differences between bacteria with and without plastic granules, while the ΔmreC mutant of S. Typhimurium has an internal morphology distinct from that of the wild type.

Cross-linked network development in compatibilized alkyd/acrylic hybrid latex films for the creation of hard coatings

Hybrids made from an alkyd resin and an acrylic copolymer can potentially combine the desired properties of each component. Alkyd/acrylic hybrid latex particles were synthesized via miniemulsion polymerization and used to create films at room temperature. Comparisons of the alkyd auto-oxidative cross-linking rates and the associated network development are made between two alkyd resins (with differing levels of hydrophilicity as measured by their acid numbers). The effects of increasing the compatibilization between the alkyd and the acrylic phase via functionalization with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) are investigated. Magnetic resonance profiling and microindentation measurements reveal that film hardening occurs much faster in a GMA-functionalized alkyd hybrid than in the standard hybrid. The film's hardness increases by a factor of 4 over a 5-day period. The rate of cross-linking is significantly slower in nonfunctionalized alkyd hybrid films and when the more hydrophilic alkyd resin is used. Tensile deformation of the hybrid latex films reveals the effects of GMA functionalization and drier concentration in creating a denser cross-linked network. Modeling of the tensile deformation behavior of the hybrid films used a combination of the upper convected Maxwell model (to describe the viscoelastic component) and the Gent model (to describe the elastic component). The modeling provides a correlation between the cross-linked network formation and the resulting mechanical properties.