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Asymmetric ultrafiltration membranes derived from block copolymer self-assembly have seen growing attention as a result of their ordered pore structures and scalable fabrication process. One route to extend their utility is to provide, through the molecular architecture of the block copolymer, covalent binding sites for facile attachment of foreign functional molecules. Here, we report the synthesis of triblock terpolymer poly(styrene)-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine)-block-poly(propylene sulfide) (SVPS) and its fabrication into isoporous ultrafiltration membranes. Final SVPS membrane top surfaces exhibit narrowly dispersed mesopores with 6-fold symmetry. Membranes show a switchable response to pH changes demonstrating the potential as a chemical gate. Membrane pore surfaces are decorated with thiol groups providing active covalent binding sites via versatile thiol–ene click chemistry. The work may open pathways to produce high-performance multifunctional membranes for chem- and bio-sensing and for separation ...

Change history: In Fig. 3b of this Letter, the labels for the outer (11.8 nm) and inner (7.4 nm) diameters of the structure were inadvertently omitted. Fig. 3 has been corrected online.

Silica chemistry provides pathways to uniquely tunable nanoparticle platforms for biological imaging. It has been a long-standing problem to synthesize fluorescent silica nanoparticles (SNPs) in batch reactions with high and low fluorescence intensity levels for reliable use as an intensity barcode, which would greatly increase the number of molecular species that could be tagged intracellularly and simultaneously observed in conventional fluorescence microscopy. Here, employing an amino-acid catalyzed growth, highly fluorescent SNP probes were synthesized with sizes < 40 nm and well separated intensity distributions, as mapped by single-particle imaging techniques. A seeded growth approach was used to minimize the rate of secondary particle formation. Organic fluorescent dye affinity for the SNP during shell growth was tuned using specifics of the organosilane linker chemistry. This work highlights design considerations in the development of fluorescent probes with well separated intensity distributions synthesized in batch reactions for single-particle imaging and sensing applications, where heterogeneities across the nanoparticle ensemble are critical factors in probe performance.

Silica chemistry provides pathways to uniquely tunable nanoparticle platforms for biological imaging. It has been a long-standing problem to synthesize fluorescent silica nanoparticles (SNPs) in batch reactions with high and low fluorescence intensity levels for reliable use as an intensity barcode, which would greatly increase the number of molecular species that could be tagged intracellularly and simultaneously observed in conventional fluorescence microscopy. Here, employing an amino-acid catalyzed growth, highly fluorescent SNP probes were synthesized with sizes

Diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI) uses monochromatic x-rays coupled to an analyzer crystal to extract information about the refraction of x-rays within the object. Studies of excised biological tissues show that DEI has significant contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) advantages for soft tissue when compared to standard radiography. DEI differs from conventional CT in that its refraction contrast depends on x-ray energy as 1/E, thus the energy and dose considerations for conventional CT will be inappropriate. The goal of this study was to assess the optimal energy for in vivo CT imaging of a mouse head to obtain the largest soft tissue refraction CNR. Through a theoretical model, optimum refraction CNR for mouse brain imaging was found to be about 20 keV. The findings were tested experimentally using the DEI system at the X15A beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source. Using the parameters for optimized refraction CNR (20 keV, silicon [333] reflection), large image artifacts were caused by DEI's scatter-rejection properties. By increasing the x-ray energy and using a lower order diffraction, silicon [111], soft tissue features within the brain, including the hippocampus, could be resolved.

The pollen–stigma interaction resulting in self-incompatibility in the cruciferous plant Brassica has been correlated with glycoproteins that display polymorphisms in all S genotypes examined. A complementary DNA clone encoding these glycoproteins has been isolated and characterized. Polymorphisms in homologous restriction fragments of Brassica genomic DNA segregate precisely with alleles at the S locus.

Nanometre-sized objects with highly symmetrical, cage-like polyhedral shapes, often with icosahedral symmetry, have recently been assembled from DNA1–3, RNA4 or proteins5,6 for applications in biology and medicine. These achievements relied on advances in the development of programmable self-assembling biological materials7–10, and on rapidly developing techniques for generating three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions from cryo-electron microscopy images of single particles, which provide high-resolution structural characterization of biological complexes11–13. Such single-particle 3D reconstruction approaches have not yet been successfully applied to the identification of synthetic inorganic nanomaterials with highly symmetrical cage-like shapes. Here, however, using a combination of cryo-electron microscopy and single-particle 3D reconstruction, we suggest the existence of isolated ultrasmall (less than 10 nm) silica cages (‘silicages’) with dodecahedral structure. We propose that such highly symmetrical, self-assembled cages form through the arrangement of primary silica clusters in aqueous solutions on the surface of oppositely charged surfactant micelles. This discovery paves the way for nanoscale cages made from silica and other inorganic materials to be used as building blocks for a wide range of advanced functional-materials applications. Machine-learning algorithms are used to generate single-particle three-dimensional reconstructions, revealing that highly symmetrical dodecahedral silica cages, around 10 nm in size, self-assemble in the presence of surfactant micelles.