Biomedical subjects

Fernando Leal-Calderon

Publications and source records attributed to Fernando Leal-Calderon.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Self-assembled magnetic nanowires made irreversible by polymer bridging.

In this letter, we investigate the mechanism of formation of a recently discovered new type of colloid, irreversible flexible chains of magnetic particles. The chain formation mechanism is based on magnetically induced bridging by adsorbed polymers, and we investigate here the associated phase diagrams, considering both thermodynamic and kinetic aspects. This phase diagram is the consequence of a balance between entropic repulsion between polymer layers at the particles surfaces, depletion forces pushing the particles together, and a short-range attractive force developing when polymers can bridge two particles. We end up with a very simple protocol allowing the formation of long, extremely regular chains, which can find numerous applications in chemistry and biology. The perspectives for the development of a new field of "macrocolloidal chemistry" are discussed.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2004

Materials based on solid-stabilized emulsions.

Solid-stabilized emulsions are obtained by shearing a mixture of oil, water, and solid colloidal particles. In this article, we present a large variety of materials, resulting from a limited coalescence process. Direct (o/w), inverse (w/o), and multiple (w/o/w) emulsions that are surfactant-free and monodisperse were produced in a very wide droplet size range, from micrometers to centimeters. These materials exhibit original properties compared with surfactant-stabilized emulsions: outstanding stability with respect to coalescence and unusual rheological behavior. For such systems, the elastic storage modulus G' is not controlled by interfacial tension but by the interfacial elasticity resulting from the strong adhesion between the solid particles adsorbed at the oil-water interface. Due to the wide accessible droplet size range, concentrated emulsions can be extremely fluid while emulsions with low droplet volume fraction can behave as solids.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Rheological properties of highly concentrated protein-stabilized emulsions.

We prepared concentrated quasi monodisperse hexadecane-in-water emulsions stabilized by various proteins and investigated their rheological properties. Some protein-stabilized emulsions possess remarkably high elasticity and at the same time they are considerably fragile--they exhibit coalescence at yield strain and practically do not flow. The elastic storage modulus G' and the loss modulus G" of the emulsions were determined for different oil volume fractions above the random close packing. Surprisingly, the dimensionless elastic moduli G'/(sigma/a), sigma being the interfacial tension, and a being the mean drop radius, obtained for emulsions stabilized by different proteins do not collapse on a single master curve. They are almost always substantially higher than the corresponding values obtained for equivalent Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS)-stabilized emulsions. The unusually high elasticity cannot be attributed to a specificity of the continuous phase, because the osmotic equation of state of our emulsions is found identical to the one obtained for samples stabilized by classical surfactants. In parallel, we mimicked the thin films that separate the droplets in the concentrated emulsion and found that the protein adsorption layers contain a substantial number of sticky surface aggregates. These severely obstruct local rearrangements of individual drops in respect to their neighbors which leads to coalescence at yield strain. Furthermore, we found that G'/(sigma/a) is correlated (for a given oil volume fraction) to the dilatational elastic modulus, of the protein layer adsorbed on the droplets. The intrinsic elasticity of the protein layers, together with the blocked local rearrangements are considered as the main factors determining the unusual bulk elasticity of the studied emulsions.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Surface forces in model oil-in-water emulsions stabilized by proteins.

We have employed two complementary techniques, namely, the magnetic chaining technique (MCT) and a variant of the Mysels cell to obtain data concerning the repulsive interaction profiles between protein layers formed at liquid-liquid interfaces. For BSA-stabilized systems, a long-ranged repulsion is operative. It is not of an electrostatic origin, but originates most probably from the formation of multiple protein layers at the interface. The interactions between beta-casein layers formed at the water/oil interface are governed by electrostatic repulsion. Due to the relatively large final thickness of approximately 20 nm, the van der Waals contribution to the total disjoining pressure is inferior. The oscillatory component is also negligible for the studied protein concentration of 0.1 wt.%. For both proteins, the extracted information describes the situation where the protein-covered surfaces are approached/manipulated in a quasi-static manner. We observe a very good agreement between the data obtained from MCT and Mysels cell. The comparison of our results with literature data from surface force apparatus (SFA) experiments reveals a substantial difference in the force laws existing between protein-stabilized liquid droplets and mica surfaces covered by proteins. We explain this discrepancy in terms of the different protein absorption on solid and liquid interfaces. We also measured the threshold force necessary to induce irreversible flocculation in beta-casein and beta-lactoglobulin (BLG) stabilized emulsions. Under similar conditions, the threshold flocculation force is higher for beta-casein than for BLG stabilized droplets. The flocs formed from BLG covered droplets are tight and remain without visible change for at least 48 h. We speculate that the flocculation is due to formation of protein aggregates between the approaching droplets.

Adsorption↗