{"id":3833,"date":"2015-04-05T11:38:53","date_gmt":"2015-04-05T11:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=3833"},"modified":"2015-04-05T11:38:53","modified_gmt":"2015-04-05T11:38:53","slug":"smart-micelles-for-marine-environments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/smart-micelles-for-marine-environments\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart micelles for marine environments"},"content":{"rendered":"

A polymeric material that changes its structure when immersed in salt water could help protect ships and marine structures<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\"The<\/a>
The block copolymer alters its structure in response to salt solution, enabling it to survive intact in dynamic marine environments. The material may prove useful for creating non-toxic alternatives to antifouling paint used on boats. \u00a9 2015 A*STAR Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Smart\u2019 materials that alter their structure in response to specific, controllable stimuli have applications in various fields, from biomedical science to the oil industry. Now, A*STAR researchers have created a self-assembling polymeric material that changes its structure when moved from water to an electrolyte solution, such as salt water [1]. The material could help improve coatings used to protect surfaces from the build-up of biological contaminants, particularly surfaces under the sea.<\/span>

Materials composed of segments of two different monomers, each with different characteristics, are known as block copolymers. Vivek Vasantha at A*STAR Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences \u2014 together with scientists from across Singapore under the Innovative Marine Antifouling Solutions (IMAS) program \u2014 developed a new block copolymer that can self-assemble into spherical micelle structures in which one monomer forms the core and the other forms the outer shell. The monomers are the hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol), or PEG, which mixes well with water, and the halophilic polysulfabetaine (PSB), which has a preference for salt solution.<\/span>

\u201cWe created salt-responsive block copolymers that self-assemble in water to form either \u2018conventional\u2019 or \u2018inverse\u2019 micelles,\u201d states Vasantha. The conventional micelles form in deionized water and have a core of halophilic PSB with a hydrophilic PEG shell. However, the team showed that the micelles re-assemble themselves when immersed in salt solution; PEG formed the core, and PSB formed the shell to create an \u2018inverse\u2019 micelle.<\/span>

\u201cThe material is easily controlled by salt alone, rather than by a combination of several stimuli like pH, temperature or light, which some other smart materials require,\u201d explains Vasantha. \u201cIt appears to be highly tolerant of fluctuations in pH and temperature too, which means it is potentially useful for dynamic marine environments.\u201d<\/span>

The researchers mixed the block copolymers with primer to create a non-toxic coating to replace traditional antifouling paint. Current coatings to prevent fouling by marine organisms include toxic chemicals, and become ineffective after a short time because the additives in the coatings break down rapidly in sea water.<\/span>

Vasantha\u2019s team applied the new coating to glass slides, which they then immersed in the sea for two weeks.<\/span>

\u201cThe antifouling behavior of coatings is normally tested in laboratory experiments,\u201d says Vasantha. \u201cThroughout our unique marine tests, the self-assembling micelles kept the coated surfaces intact and the coating displayed reasonable antifouling behavior by preventing settling by organisms such as barnacles.\u201d<\/span>

The researchers anticipate that their smart material will have other potential applications in enhanced oil recovery and biomedical science.<\/span>



The A*STAR-affiliated researchers contributing to this research are from the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A polymeric material that changes its structure when immersed in salt water could help protect ships and marine structures \u2018Smart\u2019 materials that alter their structure in response to specific, controllable stimuli have applications in various fields, from biomedical science to the oil industry. Now, A*STAR researchers have created a self-assembling polymeric material that changes its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env-150x116.jpg",150,116,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",95,37,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",300,116,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",96,37,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/env.jpg",150,58,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}