Facile Method to Determine the Molecular Weight of Polymer Grafts Grown from Cellulose Nanocrystals

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Wohlhauser ◽  
Chris Rader ◽  
Christoph Weder
2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 503-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Beck-Candanedo ◽  
David Viet ◽  
Derek G Gray

The partitioning behaviour of dye-labeled dextrans of high molecular weight in aqueous suspensions of native cellulose nanocrystals was studied. Cellulose concentrations lie in the isotropic–nematic coexistence region. Blue dextrans of various molecular weights and degrees of substitution of dye molecules (anionic Cibacron blue 3G-A) were investigated. Increasing the total concentration of blue dextran and degree of dye substitution led to increasing partition coefficients. Increasing dextran molecular weight resulted in higher partition coefficients, in agreement with theory. Partition coefficients were larger than predicted theoretically using a second virial coefficient approximation. Electrostatic and entropic contributions to the partition coefficient of blue dextran are discussed. Dextrans labeled with neutral fluorescein isothiocyanate did not partition preferentially in this system.Key words: partition coefficient, cellulose nanocrystals, dextrans, degree of substitution, polyelectrolyte.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (38) ◽  
pp. 6000-6012 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Glasing ◽  
J. Bouchard ◽  
P. G. Jessop ◽  
P. Champagne ◽  
M. F. Cunningham

Tertiary polyamines and polyamides were grafted to cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) via Nitroxide-Mediated Polymerisation to yield well-defined CNC, which were examined for their CO2-responsive dispersibility in water and oil.


Author(s):  
Douglas C. Barker

A number of satisfactory methods are available for the electron microscopy of nicleic acids. These methods concentrated on fragments of nuclear, viral and mitochondrial DNA less than 50 megadaltons, on denaturation and heteroduplex mapping (Davies et al 1971) or on the interaction between proteins and DNA (Brack and Delain 1975). Less attention has been paid to the experimental criteria necessary for spreading and visualisation by dark field electron microscopy of large intact issociations of DNA. This communication will report on those criteria in relation to the ultrastructure of the (approx. 1 x 10-14g) DNA component of the kinetoplast from Trypanosomes. An extraction method has been developed to eliminate native endonucleases and nuclear contamination and to isolate the kinetoplast DNA (KDNA) as a compact network of high molecular weight. In collaboration with Dr. Ch. Brack (Basel [nstitute of Immunology), we studied the conditions necessary to prepare this KDNA Tor dark field electron microscopy using the microdrop spreading technique.


Author(s):  
W. Bernard

In comparison to many other fields of ultrastructural research in Cell Biology, the successful exploration of genes and gene activity with the electron microscope in higher organisms is a late conquest. Nucleic acid molecules of Prokaryotes could be successfully visualized already since the early sixties, thanks to the Kleinschmidt spreading technique - and much basic information was obtained concerning the shape, length, molecular weight of viral, mitochondrial and chloroplast nucleic acid. Later, additonal methods revealed denaturation profiles, distinction between single and double strandedness and the use of heteroduplexes-led to gene mapping of relatively simple systems carried out in close connection with other methods of molecular genetics.


Author(s):  
L. W. Labaw

Crystals of a human γGl immunoglobulin have the external morphology of diamond shaped prisms. X-ray studies have shown them to be monoclinic, space group C2, with 2 molecules per unit cell. The unit cell dimensions are a = 194.1, b = 91.7, c = 51.6Å, 8 = 102°. The relatively large molecular weight of 151,000 and these unit cell dimensions made this a promising crystal to study in the EM.Crystals similar to those used in the x-ray studies were fixed at 5°C for three weeks in a solution of mother liquor containing 5 x 10-5M sodium phosphate, pH 7.0, and 0.03% glutaraldehyde. They were postfixed with 1% osmium tetroxide for 15 min. and embedded in Maraglas the usual way. Sections were cut perpendicular to the three crystallographic axes. Such a section cut with its plane perpendicular to the z direction is shown in Fig. 1.This projection of the crystal in the z direction shows periodicities in at least four different directions but these are only seen clearly by sighting obliquely along the micrograph.


Author(s):  
M. Boublik ◽  
G. Thornton ◽  
G. Oostergetel ◽  
J.F. Hainfeld ◽  
J.S. Wall

Understanding the structural complexity of ribosomes and their role in protein synthesis requires knowledge of the conformation of their components - rRNAs and proteins. Application of dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), electrical discharge of the support carbon film in an atmosphere of pure nitrogen, and determination of the molecular weight of individual rRNAs enabled us to obtain high resolution electron microscopic images of unstained freeze-dried rRNA molecules from BHK cells in a form suitable for evaluation of their 3-D structure. Preliminary values for the molecular weight of 28S RNA from the large and 18S RNA from the small ribosomal subunits as obtained by mass measurement were 1.84 x 106 and 0.97 x 106, respectively. Conformation of rRNAs consists, in general, of alternating segments of intramolecular hairpin stems and single stranded loops in a proportion which depends on their ionic environment, the Mg++ concentration in particular. Molecules of 28S RNA (Fig. 1) and 18S RNA (not shown) obtained by freeze-drying from a solution of 60 mM NH+4 acetate and 2 mM Mg++ acetate, pH 7, appear as partially unfolded coils with compact cores suggesting a high degree of ordered secondary structure.


Author(s):  
C. E. Cluthe ◽  
G. G. Cocks

Aqueous solutions of a 1 weight-per cent poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) were degassed under vacuum, transferred to a parallel plate viscometer under a nitrogen gas blanket, and exposed to Co60 gamma radiation. The Co60 source was rated at 4000 curies, and the dose ratewas 3.8x105 rads/hr. The poly (ethylene oxide) employed in the irradiations had an initial viscosity average molecular weight of 2.1 x 106.The solutions were gelled by a free radical reaction with dosages ranging from 5x104 rads to 4.8x106 rads.


Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Richter ◽  
John A. Schilling

The structural unit of solid state collagen complexes has been reported by Porter and Vanamee via EM and by Cowan, North and Randall via x-ray diffraction to be an ellipsoidal unit of 210-270 A. length by 50-100 A. diameter. It subsequently was independently demonstrated by us in dog tendon, dermis, and induced complexes. Its detailed morphologic, dimensional and molecular weight (MW) aspects have now been determined. It is pear-shaped in long profile with m diameters of 57 and 108 A. and m length of 263 A. (Fig. 1, tendon, KMnO4 fixation, Na-tungstate; Fig. 2a, schematic of unit in long, C, and x-sectional profiles of its thin, xB, and bulbous, xA portions; Fig. 2b, tendon essentially unmodified by ether and 0.4 N NaOH treatment, Na-tungstate). The unit consists of a uniquely coild cable, c, of ṁ 22.9 A. diameter and length of 2580-3316 A. The cable consists of three 2nd-strands, s, each of m 10.6 A.


Author(s):  
J. P. Robinson ◽  
P. G. Lenhert

Crystallographic studies of rabbit Fc using X-ray diffraction patterns were recently reported. The unit cell constants were reported to be a = 69. 2 A°, b = 73. 1 A°, c = 60. 6 A°, B = 104° 30', space group P21, monoclinic, volume of asymmetric unit V = 148, 000 A°3. The molecular weight of the fragment was determined to be 55, 000 ± 2000 which is in agreement with earlier determinations by other methods.Fc crystals were formed in water or dilute phosphate buffer at neutral pH. The resulting crystal was a flat plate as previously described. Preparations of small crystals were negatively stained by mixing the suspension with equal volumes of 2% silicotungstate at neutral pH. A drop of the mixture was placed on a carbon coated grid and allowed to stand for a few minutes. The excess liquid was removed and the grid was immediately put in the microscope.


Author(s):  
E.L. Benedetti ◽  
I. Dunia ◽  
Do Ngoc Lien ◽  
O. Vallon ◽  
D. Louvard ◽  
...  

In the eye lens emerging molecular and structural patterns apparently cohabit with the remnants of the past. The lens in a rather puzzling fashion sums up its own natural history and even transient steps of the differentiation are memorized. A prototype of this situation is well outlined by the study of the lenticular intercellular junctions. These membrane domains exhibit structural, biochemical and perhaps functional polymorphism reflecting throughout life the multiple steps of the differentiation of the epithelium into fibers and of the ageing process of the lenticular cells.The most striking biochemical difference between the membrane derived from the epithelium and from the fibers respectively, concerns the presence of the 26,000 molecular weight polypeptide (MP26) in the latter membranes.


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