Ion exchange membranes with strong ionic separation performance have strategic importance for resource recovery and water purification, but the current state-of-the-art membranes suffer from inadequate ion selective transport for the target ions. This work proposes a new class of zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-based anion exchange membranes (...
Nanoarchitectonics, like architectonics, allows the design and building of structures, but at the nanoscale. Unlike those in architectonics, and even macro-, micro-, and atomic-scale architectonics, the assembled structures at the nanoscale do not always follow the projected design. In fact, they do follow the projected design but only for self-ass...
Published in Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Here we address research directions and trends developed following novel concepts in 2D/3D self-assembled polymer structures established in the department led by Helmuth Möhwald. These functional structures made of hybrids of polymer multilayers, lipids, and nanoparticles stimulated research in the design of the cellular microenvironment. The compo...
Surface modification has been proven to be an effective approach for ion exchange membranes to achieve separation of counterions with different valences by altering interfacial construction of membranes to improve ion transfer performance. In this work, we have fabricated a series of novel cation exchange membranes (CEMs) by modifying sulfonated po...
International audience
Determination of both thickness and refractive index of a thin biomolecular or polymer layer in wet conditions is a task not easily performed. Available tools such as XPS, AFM, ellipsometry and integrated photonic sensors often have difficulties with the native wet condition of said agents-under-test, perform poorly in the sub-5 nm regime or do not...
Layer by Layer (LbL) thin films stemming from the formation of stereocomplex between oligolactate of opposite chirality (OLLA and ODLA) covalently anchored onto poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) chains is described herein for the first time. The feasibility to construct films by sequential adsorption of PVA-g-ODLA and PVA-g-OLLA graft copolymers is underta...
Published in Soft matter
Over the past two decades the Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assembly of multilayer thin films has witnessed an explosive growth. However, this has so far not been translated into numerous industrial applications mainly owing to the time-consuming multistep assembly procedure which was originally based on dipping of a substrate into a solution. More recently...
Published in Applied Surface Science
The group of silanes is one of the most abundant classes of molecules used for surface modifi cation. In most studies, silanization is made from the vapor phase or solution. Here, an easy, robust, and fast way not only to modify, but also to map, control, and predict the wetting profi les on silicon surfaces after silanization and the fi nal charac...
