59 datasets found

Increased environmental pressures and awareness is promoting a major drive towards an increased use of biosurfactants to produce more biosustainable and biodegradable consumer...

Bacterial membranes contain safety valves called mechanosensitive ion channels, which protect the bacterium from changes in the osmotic pressure of their environment. However,...

Neutron reflectometry (NR) is a very powerful technique for the study of thin layers. It is able to measure composition, thickness and roughness and is a very penetrating...

This proposal is part of a major EPSRC (EP/GR065705)/Unilever funded programme to develop and control the spontaneous formation of surfactant multilayer structures at...

Polymers, end-functionalised with carboxylic acid (COOH) groups do not normally segregate to film surfaces due to the high surface energy of these functionalities. However, we...

Observation of both ferromagnetic ordering and Kondo/heavy fermion behavior in a system is not so common. Recently we have discovered the Kondo effect/heavy fermion behavior in...

The spin Seebeck effect is able to convert a temperature gradient into a spin current. Many potential applications exist for the field of spintronics, which use these spin...

The solid solution Mn(1-x)Fe(x)WO4 exhibits complex antiferromagnetic order with coexistence of commensurate and incommensurate magnetic structures. Furthermore, the MnWO4 end...

Improving the efficiency of existing drugs is currently one of the major goals of pharmaceutical industries. Rather than developing new drugs, which requires new clinical...

Nanodiscs are self assembled complexes of phospholipids and a class of amphipathic helical proteins termed membrane scaffold proteins . The proteins and lipids self-assemble...

Chiral gemini surfactants containing stereogenic centers and two amphiphilic moieties, not only maintain the chiral properties, but also exhibit stronger aggregation properties,...

We use chemistry to arrange unusual crystal structures that set up conflicting interactions between magnetic ions in the material. In these compounds i is not possible for a...

In a recent EPSRC / Unilever / Oxford CASE project we have used NR to explore and develop optimised delivery mechanism for active benefit agents such as perfumes. In particular...

Calcium ions have been shown in a preliminary experiment to have a dramatic effect on the thickness and structure of free supported bilayer films. In this proposal we...

The mineral gaudefroyite contains parallel chains of linked MnO6 octahedra. The Mn magnetic moments order with parallel spins within a given chain at low temperature, but the...

In a recent SURF experiment on the formation of silica films templated with cat-anionic/polymer complexes we found that the film growth and evolution occurs on a faster time...

Exosomes are released by cells are responsible for cell-cell communication of macromolecules and the development of disease such as cancer. These nanoparticles are loaded with...

Multiferroic systems have more than one functionality, i.e. ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity and ferrotoroidicity. In nature there are few materials that...

We propose to investigate the excitation spectrum of azurite in both zero field and applied fields up to 7T. Using inelastic neutrons on OSIRIS we hope to clearly resolve the...

We wish to develop a rational understanding of the mechanisms underlying the way water soluble polymer brushes - in particular those of polyethylene oxide/polyethylene glycol -...