TY - JOUR A1 - You, Zengchao A1 - Jakubowski, Norbert A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - Separation of polystyrene nanoparticles with different coatings using two-dimensional off-line coupling of asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation and capillary electrophoresis JF - Journal of Chromatography A N2 - The successful off-line coupling of asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation (AF4) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) for separation of nanoparticles (NPs) with different surface coatings was shown. We could successfully demonstrate that, in a certain NP size range, hyphenation of both techniques significantly improved the separation of differently coated NPs. Three mixtures of polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) with comparable core sizes but different coatings (no coating/carboxyl-coated) were studied. Separation in either method resulted in non-baseline resolved or non-separated peaks. In contrast, two-dimensional off-line coupling of AF4 and CE resulted in clearly separated regions in their 2 D plots in case of 20 and 50 nm particle mixtures, whereas the 100 nm NP mixture could not be separated at all. Various factors affecting the separation like hydrodynamic diameter or SDS concentration were discussed. KW - Capillary electrophoresis (CE) KW - Nanoparticles with same nominal diameter KW - Surface coating KW - Two-dimensional off-line coupling KW - Asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation (AF4) PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2019.01.056 VL - 1593 SP - 119 EP - 126 PB - Elsevier AN - OPUS4-47363 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - You, Zengchao A1 - Meier, Florian A1 - Weidner, Steffen ED - Weidner, Steffen T1 - Comparison of miniaturized and conventional asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation (AF4) channels for nanoparticle separation JF - Separations N2 - The performance of a miniaturized channel for the separation of polymer and metal nanoparticles (NP) using Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (AF4) was investigated and compared with a conventional AF4 system. To develop standard separation methods, experimental parameters like cross flow, gradient profile and injection time were varied and optimized. Corresponding chromatographic parameters were calculated and compared. Our results indicate that the chromatographic resolution in the miniaturized channel is lower, whereas significantly shorter analyses time and less solvent consumption were obtained. Moreover, the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) obtained from hyphenation with a UV-detector are obviously lower than in a conventional channel, which makes the miniaturized channel interesting for trace analysis. KW - Nanoparticles separation asymetrical flow field flow fractionation PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/separations4010008 SN - 2297-8739 VL - 4 IS - 1 SP - 8, 1 EP - 11 AN - OPUS4-47196 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - You, Zengchao A1 - Nirmalananthan-Budau, Nithiya A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Panne, Ulrich A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - Separation of polystyrene nanoparticles bearing different carboxyl group densities and functional groups quantification with capillary electrophoresis and asymmetrical flow field flow fractionation JF - Journal of Chromatography A N2 - Two sets of polystyrene nanoparticles (PSNPs) with comparable core sizes but different carboxyl group densities were made and separated using asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (AF4), capillary electrophoresis (CE), and the off-line hyphenation of both methods. Our results revealed the significant potential of two-dimensional off-line AF4-CE hyphenation to improve the separation and demonstrated for the first time, the applicability of CE to determine the functional group density of nanoparticles (NPs). Compared to the result acquired with conductometric titration, the result obtained with synthesized 100 nm sized PSNPs revealed only a slight deviation of 1.7%. Commercial 100 nm sized PSNPs yielded a deviation of 4.6 %. For 60 nm sized PSNPs, a larger deviation of 10.6 % between both methods was observed, which is attributed to the lower separation resolution. KW - Nanoparticle KW - A4F KW - Capillary electrophoresis KW - Carboxyl group PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2020.461392 VL - 1626 SP - 461392 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-51080 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Yu, Z. A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Risse, T. A1 - Hecht, S. T1 - The role of statistics and microenvironment for the photoresponse in multi-switch architectures: The case of photoswitchable oligoazobenzene foldamers JF - Chemical science N2 - Systems containing multiple photochromic units possibly display a synergistic interplay of individual switching events and hence potentially give rise to unprecedented photoresponsive behavior. Among such systems photoswitchable foldamers are attractive as the photoisomerization events are coupled to the helix–coil conformational transition. To gain comprehensive insight into the role of the number of switching units (statistics) as well as their specific location and relative orientation in the helix backbone, several series of foldamers have been synthesized and characterized. In these series of foldamers, the local environment of the photoswitchable units was precisely tuned as π,π-stacking interactions were enforced to occur between specific pairs, i.e. azobenzene–azobenzene, azobenzene–tolane, or phenylene–phenylene units. These particular arrangements are reflected not only in the stability of the helical conformation, but also affect the photoresponsive behavior, i.e. the rate of photoisomerization and extent of denaturation. Furthermore, determining the intramolecular spin–spin distance in a series of TEMPO-labeled foldamers with variable chain lengths and different spatial locations of the spin-labels deduced an independent verification of the photoinduced helix–coil transition by ESR spectroscopy. Quantitative analysis of the corresponding ESR spectra shows an excellent correlation of the extent of intramolecular spin–spin coupling and the intensity of the Cotton effect in CD spectroscopy. From all of these results an unusual relationship between the rate of photoisomerization and the extent of photoinduced denaturation could be unraveled, as they are not going hand-in-hand but compete with each other, i.e. the easier the individual switching event is, the harder it becomes to achieve a high degree of unfolding. This insight into the effect of microenvironment on the ease of individual switching events and the role of statistics on the resulting degree of the overall conformational transition is of general interest for the design of multi-switch architectures with improved photoresponse. KW - Polymers KW - Photoswitchable KW - Oligoazobenzene KW - Foldamers PY - 2013 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3sc51664d SN - 2041-6520 SN - 2041-6539 VL - 4 IS - 11 SP - 4156 EP - 4167 PB - RSC CY - Cambridge AN - OPUS4-29814 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zeegers, G. P. A1 - Steinhoff, R. F. A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Zenobi, R. T1 - Evidence for laser-induced redox reactions in matrix-assisted laserdesorption/ionization between cationizing agents and target plate material: a study with polystyrene and trifluoroacetate salts JF - International Journal of Mass Spectrometry N2 - Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) is often applied to assess the dispersity and the end groups of synthetic polymers through the addition of cationizing agents. Here weaddress how these cation adducts are formed using polystyrene (PS) as a model polymer. We analyzed PSby MALDI-MS with a 2-[(2E)-3-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-2-methylprop-2-enylidene]malononitrile (DCTB) as the matrix and a range of trifluoroacetate (TFA) salts as cationizing agents on a range of different targetplate materials (copper, 1.4301 stainless steel, aluminum, Inconel 625, Ti90/Al6/V4 and chromium-, gold-and silver-plated stainless steel). It was found that on a stainless steel substrate the metal cations Al+,Li+, Na+, Cu+and Ag+formed polystyrene adducts, whereas K+, Cs+, Ba2+, Cr3+, Pd2+, In3+, or their lower oxidation states, did not. For the copper and silver substrates, PS and DCTB adduct formation with cations liberated from these target plate materials was observed upon addition of a cationizing agent, which indicates the occurrence of redox reactions between the added TFA salts and the target plate material. Judging from their standard electrode potentials, these redox reactions would not normally occur, i.e.,they require an additional energy input, strongly suggesting that the observed redox reactions are laser-induced. Furthermore, copper granules were found to successfully sequester PS from a tetrahydrofuran(THF) solution, consistent with the view complex formation with the copper target plate can take place prior to the MALDI-MS measurement. KW - Polymer MALDI KW - Cationization KW - Polystyrene KW - Laser-induced redox reactions KW - Target plate material PY - 2017 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijms.2016.10.007 SN - 1387-3806 SN - 1873-2798 VL - 416 SP - 80 EP - 89 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-41146 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhao, J. A1 - Schlaad, H. A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Antonietti, M. T1 - Synthesis of terpene-poly(ethylene oxide)s by t-BuP4-promoted anionic ring-opening polymerization JF - Polymer chemistry N2 - Terpene alcohols (menthol, retinol, cholesterol, and betulin) together with the phosphazene base t-BuP4 were used as initiating systems for anionic ring-opening polymerization of ethylene oxide. The polymerizations were conducted in a controlled manner with the initial molar ratio of t-BuP4 to hydroxyl groups of 0.01–0.2, yielding a series of biohybrid polymers comprising terpene entities and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) chains with low polydispersities and tunable compositions (57–87 wt% of PEO). Samples were characterized by NMR and UV/visible spectroscopy, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and size exclusion chromatography; thermal properties were studied by differential scanning calorimetry. The concept of this study opens a new toolbox of terpene-based biohybrid polymers with variable properties and functions. KW - ROMP KW - MALDI KW - Amphiphilic polymers KW - Polyethylene oxide PY - 2012 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c1py00388g SN - 1759-9954 SN - 1759-9962 VL - 3 IS - 7 SP - 1763 EP - 1768 AN - OPUS4-26026 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zydziak, N. A1 - Konrad, W. A1 - Feist, F. A1 - Afonin, S. A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Barner-Kowollik, C. T1 - Coding and decoding libraries of sequence-defined functional copolymers synthesized via photoligation JF - Nature Communications N2 - Designing artificial macromolecules with absolute sequence order represents a considerable challenge. Here we report an advanced light-induced avenue to monodisperse sequencedefined functional linear macromolecules up to decamers via a unique photochemical approach. The versatility of the synthetic strategy—combining sequential and modular concepts—enables the synthesis of perfect macromolecules varying in chemical constitution and topology. Specific functions are placed at arbitrary positions along the chain via the successive addition of monomer units and blocks, leading to a library of functional homopolymers, alternating copolymers and block copolymers. The in-depth characterization of each sequence-defined chain confirms the precision nature of the macromolecules. Decoding of the functional information contained in the molecular structure is achieved via tandem mass spectrometry without recourse to their synthetic history, showing that the sequence information can be read.We submit that the presented photochemical strategy is a viable and advanced concept for coding individual monomer units along a macromolecular chain. KW - Photoligation KW - Copolymer sequence KW - MALDI-TOF MS/MS PY - 2016 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-391542 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13672 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 7 SP - Artikel Nr. 13672 AN - OPUS4-39154 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -