Artificial DNA in hydrology

The use of artificial DNA (artDNA) in hydrological applications is becoming increasingly popular, either in dissolved form (dissolved artDNA) or encapsulated and protected by a layer (encDNA). DNA can be detected even at low concentrations and offers the ability to create numerous uniquely identifiable DNA labels, making it ideal for a wide...

To bind or not to bind: DNA mediated multivalent interactions lead to superselectivity

To bind two entities together, an attractive interaction is needed. In biological systems, such interactions are often between ligands and receptors. But this interaction constantly breaks and forms because it is (too) weak. To ensure a lasting bond, the system can form multiple weak bonds that form an overall strong bond – similar to velcro. An...

Magnetic Coupling in Colloidal Clusters for Hierarchical Self-Assembly

Manipulating the way in which colloidal particles self-organize is a central challenge in the design of functional soft materials. Meeting this challenge requires the use of building blocks that interact with one another in a highly specific manner. Their fabrication, however, is limited by the complexity of the available synthesis procedures...

DNA linkers surfing on colloids: How surface-mobile DNA linkers affect colloidal self-assembly

This thesis revolves around exploiting the specificity of DNA interactions to guide the assembly of micro-colloids into higher order structures. The concept of DNA mediated interactions between micro-colloids is a field of study that has ramified from the field on DNA guided self-assembly of nano-colloids. Despite the great potential that the...

Out-of-equilibrium self-assembly approaches for new soft materials

Living creatures exists for an important part out of soft material, such as skin, organs and cells, that are out-of-equilibrium formed by the self-assembly of molecular building blocks. Natural materials are continuously active with dynamic processes occurring, such as growth, shrinkage and transport mechanisms under the consumption of energy....

Corrosion Performance of Carbon Steel in Simulated Pore Solution in the Presence of Micelles

This study presents the results on the investigation of the corrosion behavior of carbon steel in model alkaline medium in the presence of very low concentration of polymeric nanoaggregates [0.0024 wt % polyethylene oxide (PEO)113-b-PS70 micelles]. The steel electrodes were investigated in chloride free and chloride-containing cement extracts....

Observation and modeling of biological colloids with neutron scattering techniques and Monte Carlo simulations

In this study non-invasive neutron scattering techniques are used on soft condensed matter, probing colloidal length scales. Neutrons penetrate deeply into matter and have a different interaction with hydrogen and deuterium, allowing for tunable contrast using light and heavy water as solvents. The mesoscopic structure of materials is determined...

Brownian particles in transient polymer networks

We discuss the thermal motion of colloidal particles in transient polymer networks. For particles that are physically bound to the surrounding chains, light-scattering experiments reveal that the submillisecond dynamics changes from diffusive to Rouse-like upon crossing the network formation threshold. Particles that are not bound do not show...

Fluid-crystal coexistence for proteins and inorganic nanocolloids: Dependence on ionic strength

We investigate theoretically the fluid-crystal coexistence of solutions of globular charged nanoparticles such as proteins and inorganic colloids. The thermodynamic properties of the fluid phase are computed via the optimized Baxter model P. Prinsen and T. Odijk [J. Chem. Phys. 121, 6525 (2004)]. This is done specifically for lysozyme and...

Spin-Echo Small-Angle Neutron Scattering applied to colloidal systems

The role of sound propagation in concentrated colloidal suspensions

In a suspension, the hydrodynamic interactions between particles can propagate by two mechanisms: relatively slowly, by the diffusion of transverse momentum, or relatively rapidly, by the propagation of sound waves. Here we describe computer simulation results for the collective and single particle dynamics of colloidal particles with the aim of...

Computer simulations of colloidal suspensions - using an improved lattice-Boltzmann scheme