This work makes extensive use of international neutron scattering facilities for characterising polymer dynamics and structure, in collaboration with groups in Greece, France and Belgium. In other polymer-related projects, Professor J.M.G. Cowie , Dr V. Arrighi and Dr I.J. McEwen are controlling the properties of liquid crystalline and conventional polymer blends, enhancing ion conduction in polymers, and studying the principles of polymer physical ageing. Dr A. Kraft is synthesising thermoplastic elastomers and superabsorbers. Dr P.N. Preston s work on metallated polymer systems. Dr A.V. Powell s group is involved in the synthesis and characterisation of sulfides and oxides that have unusual structural, electronic and magnetic properties.
Nature offers some useful lessons in materials selection and self-assembly.
Synthetic models for studying aspects of binding and molecular recognition in receptor-drug interactions are being developed by Dr A. Kraft . Professor C. Viney s group studies spider and insect silks as model high-performance fibres. In collaboration with colleagues in Madrid, they are devising methods of characterising the reliability of silk as an engineering material. The group also performs research on mucus, with a particular interest in the different phases that mucin, i.e. the polymer solute in mucus, can form. Relationships between molecular architecture, chain entanglement, liquid crystalline domain size, substrate topography and the lubricating ability of mucus are under investigation.