A Method to Quantify Molecular Diffusion within Thin Solvated Polymer Films: A Case Study on Films of Natively Unfolded Nucleoporins.

ABSTRACT: We present a method to probe molecular and nanoparticle diffusion within thin, solvated polymer coatings. The device exploits the confinement with well-defined geometry that forms at the interface between a planar and a hemispherical surface (of which at least one is coated with polymers) in close contact and uses this confinement to analyze diffusion processes without interference of exchange with and diffusion in the bulk solution. With this method, which we call plane-sphere confinement microscopy (PSCM), information regarding the partitioning of molecules between the polymer coating and the bulk liquid is also obtained. Thanks to the shape of the confined geometry, diffusion and partitioning can be mapped as a function of compression and concentration of the coating in a single experim

SUBMITTER: Frost R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7526988 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature