In our laboratory, we using simple synthetic methods to synthesize one series of amphiphilic discotic liquid crystal which has the dipole-dipole forces. We not only research the effect about the length of hydrophilic chain, but also explore the arrangement of this series through some cross-comparison.

An experimental investigation was carried to examine the flow/ thermal field characteristics with/without phase change in the microchannels and compared with the traditional results. There are three parts in this study. The first part investigated the 2-D flow field measured by the micro particle image velocimetry (£gPIV) in a single PMMA microchannel fabricated by an ArF excimer laser. The slip boundary condition in the microchannel wall was also discussed. The second part studied the influence of surface condition (hydrophilic vs hydrophobic) on the flow/thermal field in a micro cooling device which included twenty parallel microchannels, which was fabricated by SU-8 microfabrication technique and replicated by the PDMS replica technique. The UV/ozone device was used to change the PDMS microchannels¡¦ surface condition from hydrophobic to hydrophilic and the £gPIV/£gLIF system was also used to measure the velocity and temperature distribution. The third part investigated the two-phase subcooled flow boiling phenomena (onset of nucleate boiling, boiling curve, flow patterns, bubble departure diameter and frequency) in the seventy-five parallel microchannels fabricated by SU-8 microfabrication technique, and aimed to raise the critical heat flux (CHF) and heat transfer coefficient to enhance the cooling efficiency. Three major methods were used in this study, as follows: (1) To add the cavity angle of £c = 60¢X, 90¢X, and 120¢X on the microchannel side walls. (2) To coat 2 £gm diamond film on the Cu heated surface. (3) To add 1 vol. % Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube (MCNT) into the working medium (deionized water). The goal of this paper is to develop a high heat flux cooling technique and apply the experimental results to solve the cooling problem resulting from the exceedingly high heat flux from the electronic component.

Thesis (M.S.)--Worcester Polytechnic Institute. / Keywords: Molecular dynamics; hydrophobic zeolite; water; confined media. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71).

Thesis (M. S.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Susan E. Burns; Committee Member: Glenn J. Rix; Committee Member: J. Carlos Santamarina. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Polymer carriers composed of poly(methacrylic acid – grafted – ethylene glycol) (P(MAA-g-EG)) hydrogels modified with poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA) to form IPNs or photopolymerized in the presence of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) nanoparticles were investigated for their use in the oral delivery of therapeutic agents for cancer treatment. The P(MAA-g-EG) hydrogel provided pH-responsive and hydrophilic properties while PBA or PMMA polymers provided hydrophobic properties. An inulin- doxorubicin conjugate was also synthesized to provide local, direct targeting for the treatment of colon cancer. The pH-responsive behavior of these polymer systems was investigated using equilibrium and dynamic swelling experiments. In gastric conditions (low pH) all materials were in a collapsed state and in intestinal conditions (neutral pH) these material were swollen. The equilibrium swelling ratios decreased with increasing hydrophobic content for both IPNs and compositions of P(MAA-g-EG) containing nanoparticles. The loading efficiencies of doxorubicin, a chemotherapeutic drug, were as high as 56% for IPNs and the IPN structure and hydrophobicity influenced the loading efficiency values. The loading efficiency of doxorubicin using P(MAA-g-EG) containing nanoparticles was as high as 64% and increased with increasing weight percent of PMMA nanoparticles in the P(MAA-g-EG) hydrogel. In gastric conditions (low pH), IPNs released a majority of the encapsulated doxorubicin (up to 70%) as compared to the P(MAA-g-EG) containing nanoparticles (up to 27%). P(MAA-g-EG) containing nanoparticles was used to load and release the inulin-doxorubicin conjugate. Loading efficiency was 54% and release profiles behaved similarly as doxorubicin. Both polymer systems were biocompatible with Caco-2, HT29-MTX, and SW620 cell models over concentration ranging from 1 mg/mL to 5 mg/mL and exposure times lasting from 2 hr to 24 hr. The 75/25 IPN exhibited the highest degree of mucoadhesion and the P(MAA-g-EG)-5.0NP the lowest. Using the same cell lines and cytotoxicity assays, the inulin-doxorubicin conjugate was determined to be more toxic than free doxorubicin at equal doxorubicin concentrations. Doxorobuicin and inulin-doxorubicin conjugate were tested for transport across Caco-2/HT29-MTX cell monolayers with and without the presence of unmodified P(MAA-g-EG) or P(MAA-g-EG)-5.0NP microparticles. The presence of the microparticles did not increase transport across the cell monolayer which is advantageous for local, direct delivery to the colon. / text

Temperature, pressure, and length scale dependence of the solvation of simple solvophobic solutes is investigated in the Jagla liquid, a simple liquid consisting of particles that interact via a spherically symmetric potential combining hard and soft core interactions. The results are compared with identical calculations for a model of a typical atomic liquid, the Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential, and with predictions for hydrophobic solvation in water using the recently developed cavity equation of state and the extended simple point charge model. We find that the Jagla liquid captures the qualitative thermodynamic behavior of hydrophobic hydration as a function of temperature and pressure for both small and large length scale solutes. In particular, for both the Jagla liquid and water, we observe temperature-dependent enthalpy and entropy of solvation for all solute sizes as well as a negative solvation entropy for sufficiently small solutes at low temperature. This feature of water-like solvation is distinct from the strictly positive and temperature independent enthalpy and entropy of cavity solvation observed in the Lennard-Jones fluid. The results suggest that a competition between two energy scales that favors low-density, open structures as temperature is decreased is an essential interaction of a liquid that models hydrophobic hydration. In addition the Jagla liquid dewets surfaces of large radii of curvature less readily than the Lennard-Jones liquid, and the so-called ``length scale crossover'' in solvation, whereby solvation free energies change from scaling with the solute volume to scaling with the solute surface area, occurs at length scales that are larger relative to the solvent size. Both features reflect a greater flexibility or elasticity in the Jagla liquid structure than that of a typical liquid, similar to water's ability to maintain its hydrogen bond network. The implications of the differences in crossover behavior between water-like and typical liquids are examined in the context of a simple thought experiment on the aggregation of solvophobic solutes that builds on ideas from Chandler and Rajamani et al. We find that water-like crossover behavior exposes a size range of solvophobic aggregates to destabilization upon cooling and pressurizing, which may thereby precipitate phenomena such as cold and pressure denaturation of proteins. Statistics of density fluctuations, void space, and pair distributions are analyzed for molecular-scale volumes. The pair distribution functions are used to provide an estimate of the size of the Jagla particle with a physical basis. The void distributions are observed to be distinct in the three liquids, with low temperature distributions in the LJ and Jagla liquids demonstrating a high degree of skewness. The void distributions observed in LJ liquid are hard sphere-like, while those of water and the Jagla liquid exhibit a higher degree of density inhomogeneity relative to a hard sphere system. The well-known Gaussian behavior of density fluctuations in molecular volumes in water is not generally observed in other liquids, as evidenced by the fact that this behavior is not consistently observed in either the LJ or the Jagla liquids. An exploratory study of the effects of explicit solvent on the sequence energy landscape of model heteropolymers has been performed. For a fixed set of configurations, the energy landscape of all possible sequences taken from a two letter alphabet consisting of only solvophilic and solvophobic monomers is characterized at different solvent temperatures. Non-trivial solvent and temperature effects are manifest in the distribution of sequences, confirming that the negation of these effects may have profound consequences on designability. / text

This thesis describes an investigation of the mechanistic differences of hard and soft wheat varieties in the course of dough formation. These two classes of wheat exhibit dissimilar end-use, as hard wheat flour is known for its bread making attributes, whereas soft wheat flour is suitable for cake and cookie production. This difference is related to the grain hardness, protein content and property of gluten, in addition to chemical interactions that are occurring during dough making. Covalent and hydrophobic interactions, as well as hydrogen bond formation, are the main interactions that take place during dough mixing. However, the contribution of each interaction in dough formation of hard and soft wheat is not known. One variety of hard and one variety of soft wheat flour were mixed to their optimum hydration level (500 BU), as determined by farinograph. The extent of covalent interactions of gluten proteins during dough mixing was examined by monitoring changes in the solubility of flour proteins in a 2% Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) media. Moreover, the contribution of thiol groups to covalent bond was examined by measuring the changes in the accessible thiols throughout the mixing. Lower extractability of proteins and accessible thiols of hard wheat dough, compared to soft wheat dough, indicated the predominant role of covalent interactions in hard wheat dough. The complementary results from Size Exclusion High Performance Liquid Chromatography (SE-HPLC) indicated that covalent interaction of hard wheat dough primarily occurs between Low Molecular Weight (LMW) and High Molecular Weight (HMW) gluten proteins, whereas this interaction mainly occurs among LMW proteins in soft wheat doughs. Fewer hydrophobic interactions in hard wheat dough in compare with soft wheat measured by Front-face fluorescence spectroscopy indicated that this interaction is more dominant in soft wheat dough. Study of the conformational change in secondary structure of protein (indirect approach to monitor hydrogen bond) by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy showed that β-sheets are formed in both varieties at their optimum dough strength. In hard wheat dough this structure resulted mainly from disulfide linkages, whereas in soft wheat dough this structure is more likely the result of hydrophobic interactions.

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Hyperthermophilic proteins are of great interest in both the academic and industrial world in understanding how these proteins are capable of retaining their biological activity under such harsh environmental conditions. This thesis studies a tetrabrachion stalk domain from Staphylothermus marinus, know as Right Handed Coiled Coil (RHCC). This protein is of interest due to its extreme thermostability and its affinity for heavy metals. We aim to better understand the reason for the extreme thermal stability of the protein and to take advantage of the proteins affinity for heavy metals with a view to developing a novel approach to bioremediate Hg2+, a major environmental pollutant. Our results clearly indicated that the protein is more thermostable in alkaline conditions in comparison to acidic conditions. This observation can be explained by careful inspection of the high resolution structure. Our data also clearly show that RHCC is able to bind ionic mercury compounds such as mercury nitrate and dipotassium mercury iodide.