Front Cover: The cover image shows the effect of multilayers from gelatin as the polyanion and chitosan as the polycation formed on poly‐L‐lactide on human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC); multilayers can also be formed using hyaluronic acid and heparin as the polyanions. This layer‐by‐layer assembly of biogenic polyelectrolytes can be used as a tool to foster osteogenic differentiation of hMSC. Further details can be found in the full paper by Z.‐M. Liu, Q. Gu, Z.‐K. Xu, and T. Groth* .
Cover: Nanofibrous membranes possessing reactive groups and combining the advantages of carbon nanotubes with electrospinning techniques provide great potentials for the covalent immobilization of redox enzymes such as catalase. One promising application is in biosensors with high performance. Further details can be found in the article by Z.‐G. Wang, Z.‐K. Xu,* L.‐S. Wan, J. Wu, C. Innocent, and P. Seta on page 516.
The
proposal of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect shines
a light on the practical application of luminescent materials. The
AIE-active luminescence microgels (TPEC MGs) with photo-induced color-changing
behavior were developed by integrating positively charged AIE luminogens
(AIEgens) into the anionic network of microgels, where AIEgens of
TPEC were obtained from the quaternization reaction between tetra-(4-pyridylphenyl)ethylene
(TPE-4Py) and 7-(6-bromohexyloxy)-coumarin. The aqueous suspensions
of TPEC MGs exhibit a significant AIE effect following the enhancement
of quantum yield. In addition, further increase in fluorescence intensity
and blueshift occur at elevated temperatures due to the collapse of
microgels. The distinctive photochromic behavior of TPEC MGs was observed,
which presents as the transition from orange-yellow to blue-green
color under UV irradiation, which is different from TPEC in good organic
solvents. The phenomenon of color changing can be ascribed to the
competition between photodimerization of the coumarin part and photocyclization
of TPE-4Py in TPEC. The photochromic TPEC MG aqueous suspensions can
be conducted as aqueous microgel inks for information display, encryption,
and dynamic anticounterfeiting.
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