Project: Interpolyelectrolyte complexes for capture and release of ionic substances
Research group: Soft Matter
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Interpolyelectrolyte complexes for capture and release of ionic substances
Project supervisor and contact person: Assoc. Prof. Miroslav Štěpánek stepanek@natur.cuni.cz
Oppositely charged polyelectrolytes (PEs) are known to form so-called intepolyelectrolyte complexes (IPECs), stabilized by entropic gain from small counterions of the polyelectrolyte chains, released to the solution upon IPEC formation. Unlike PEs themselves, IPECs are usually insoluble in water and in aqueous systems, they tend to form either solid precipitant or water-immiscible liquid phase (referred to as a coacervate phase). Oppositely charged block copolymers consisting of a neutral hydrophilic block and a PE block form self-assembled core-corona nanoparticles with an IPEC core (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1
This project focuses on using scattering, spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to study employing IPECs (both in bulk and in form of nanoparticles) for solubilization and release of various ionic species from multivalent small ions and charged nanoparticles to biological macromolecules such as polysaccharides and proteins. The studied IPEC systems can be used for a broad range of potential applications from separation of heavy ions from waste water to controlled drug release systems.
Profile of an ideal candidate:
• Good knowledge of English (FCE equivalent or better)
• Experience with light scattering and fluorescence spectroscopy
• Experience with electron microscopy
Our recent papers related to the topic:
Fanova, A.; Janata, M.; Filippov, S.K.; Šlouf, M.; Netopilík, M.; Mariani, A.; Štěpánek, M. Evolution of Structure in a Comb Copolymer-Surfactant Coacervate. Macromolecules 2019, 52(16), 6303-6310.
Murmiliuk, A.; Matějíček, P.; Filippov, S.K.; Janata, M.; Šlouf, M.; Pispas, S.; Štěpánek, M. Formation of core/corona nanoparticles with interpolyelectrolyte complex cores in aqueous solution: insight into chain dynamics in the complex from fluorescence quenching. Soft Matter 2018, 14, 7578-7585.
Murmiliuk, A.; Košovan, P.; Janata, M.; Procházka, K.; Uhlík, F.; Štěpánek, M. Local pH and Effective pK of a Polyelectrolyte Chain: Two Names for One Quantity? ACS Macro Letters 2018, 7, 1243-1247
Fanova, A.; Šindelka, K.; Uchman, M.; Limpouchová, Z.; Filippov, S.K.; Pispas, S.; Procházka, K.; Štěpánek, M. Coassembly of Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) with Dodecyl and Carboxyl Terminal Groups with Cationic Surfactant: Critical Comparison of Experimental and Simulation Data. Macromolecules 2018, 51, 7295-7308
Project supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Miroslav Štěpánek
Contact: stepanek@natur.cuni.cz +420-221-591-292
Soft Matter research group (http://web.natur.cuni.cz/~kosovan1/softmatter/)
Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry
Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague
Hlavova 8, 128 43 Prague, Czech Republic
Deadline is closed