Université de Fribourg

Glycopolymer vesicles with an asymmetric membrane

Schlaad, Helmut ; You, Liangchen ; Sigel, Reinhard ; Smarsly, Bernd ; Heydenreich, Matthias ; Mantion, Alexandre ; Mašić, Admir

In: Chemical Communications, 2009, p. 1478 - 1480

Direct dissolution of glycosylated polybutadiene–poly(ethylene oxide) block copolymers can lead to the spontaneous formation of vesicles or membranes, which on the outside are coated with glucose and on the inside with poly(ethylene oxide).

Université de Fribourg

Amino acids in iron oxide mineralization: (incomplete) crystal phase selection is achieved even with single amino acids

Mantion, Alexandre ; Gozzo, Fabia ; Schmitt, Bernd ; Stern, Willem B. ; Gerber, Yvonne ; Robin, Adeline Y. ; Fromm, Katharina M. ; Painsi, Monika ; Taubert, Andreas

In: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2008, vol. 112, no. 32, p. 12104–12110

Iron oxides are important minerals in biology and materials science. Using biomimetic synthesis, a variety of iron oxides have been fabricated. However, it is still not clear how growth modifiers like amino acids and peptides select different crystal phases of a complex material like iron oxide. The current paper shows that already with single amino acids, (incomplete) crystal phase selection is...

Université de Fribourg

Silver nanoparticle engineering via oligovaline organogels

Mantion, Alexandre ; Guex, A. Geraldine ; Foelske, Annette ; Mirolo, Laurent ; Fromm, Katharina M. ; Painsi, Monika ; Taubert, Andreas

In: Soft Matter, 2008, vol. 4, no. 3, p. 606-617

L-Valine-based oligopeptides with the chemical structure Z–(L-Val)₃–OMe and Z–(L-Val)₂–L-Cys(S-Bzl)–OMe form stable organogels in butanol. Both peptides are efficient gelators, but Z–(L-Val)₂–L-Cys(S-Bzl)–OMe crystallizes more readily than Z–(L-Val)₃–OMe. The two peptides can form mixed fibers, which also gel butanol. The resulting organogels are very similar to...