The main objective of the project is to undertake a systematic study of the
compositional and phase behavior and of the emerging nanostructures in
aqueous solutions of polysaccharides and of their complexes with physiologically active
compounds.
The objectives of the project are:
1)
To prepare supermolecular complexes with nanoscale-organized structures based on polyelectrolyte
polysaccharides in the presence of surfactants, proteins and organic
substances (e.g. aminoacids).
2)
To determine the conformational and phase behaviour of solutions and gels of polyelectrolyte
polysaccharides and their complexes.
3)
To characterise the nanostructures formed in these systems and their
transitions by physicochemical techniques and, in particular, static and dynamic light, X-ray and neutron scattering and acoustic measurements.
4)
To develop (i) theoretical concepts and models for the understanding of network-surfactant and network-protein interactions (ii)
methods for the interpretation and modelling of X-ray and neutron
scattering data from these systems.
Different
experimental techniques (small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering, static
and dynamic light scattering, fluorescence spectroscopy etc.) will be used.
The experimental studies will be supported by theoretical investigations.
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