Advancements in nanotechnology have led to the production of devices with components with sub-100 nm size scales. Studies have investigated how properties of polymers change when confined to nanoscale dimensions. However, stiffness-confinement studies have reported increases, decreases, and invariance with confinement for different polymer/substrate pairs, making it difficult to obtain...
Topoisomerases are ubiquitous enzymes involved in maintaining the supercoiled state of DNA in the cell. Structural, biophysical, and biochemical studies have provided an overall view of the mechanisms of DNA transformation by these enzymes, but many aspects, particularly their dynamic characteristics, remain poorly understood. Type IA topoisomerases change the topology...
Phase separation in segmented polymers provides distinct challenges in regard to their chemical reaction kinetics and characterization. Well studied, it has been shown that structure, phase separation and non-covalent interactions are key factors in the design of elastomeric polyurethanes. Specifically, this dissertation is focused on two areas: the synthesis of...