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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Ab Initio Based State Specific Modeling Of N2+O System, Han Luo Aug 2016

Ab Initio Based State Specific Modeling Of N2+O System, Han Luo

Open Access Theses

Nitrogen and atomic oxygen play an important role in high temperature gas systems. Their Zeldovich reaction product nitric oxide not only affects aerothermal loads and emissions of hypersonic vehicles, but also has the possibility to influence the efficiency of hypersonic propulsion. Atomic oxygen induced nitrogen dissociation is another reaction mechanism of the N2+O system. However, due to the difficulty of conducting ground tests, there are no experimental data for this reaction now. Thermo-chemical nonequilibrium could make the problem more difficult since experiments could only track macroscopic gas properties instead of internal energy distribution. On the other hand, current reaction and …


Catalytic Conversion Of Chlorite To Chlorine Dioxide By Non-Heme Complexes, Manasa Ramachandra Aug 2016

Catalytic Conversion Of Chlorite To Chlorine Dioxide By Non-Heme Complexes, Manasa Ramachandra

Open Access Theses

The oxyanions of chlorine (ClOx-, x=1-4) have diverse applications and are used in a variety of commercial products. They are very stable in an aqueous environment leading to water contamination, thereby posing a concern for the environment and human health. At the microbial level, the enzyme perchlorate reductase catalyzes the reduction of perchlorate (ClO4-) to chlorite (ClO2-) and chlorite dismutase further reduces chlorite to innocuous chloride (Cl -) and dioxygen (O2). Two non-heme complexes [Fe III-TAML]- (Tetraamido Macrocyclic Ligand), and [Mn II-(BnTPEN)] in the presence of peracetic acid (PAA) have been studied as catalysts for chlorite dismutation under ambient conditions. …


Development Of A Novel Polymer-Garnet Solid State Composite Electrolyte Incorporating Li-La-Zr-Bi-O And Polyethylene Oxide, Muhammed Ramazan Oduncu Aug 2016

Development Of A Novel Polymer-Garnet Solid State Composite Electrolyte Incorporating Li-La-Zr-Bi-O And Polyethylene Oxide, Muhammed Ramazan Oduncu

Open Access Theses

Current lithium ion batteries are comprised of organic liquid electrolytes - a mixture of lithium salts and binary solvents such as ethylene carbonate (EC) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The main drawbacks of this liquid mixture related to safety are flammability of the organic solvents and chemical instability with the electrode materials. To date, various ceramic and polymer materials have been considered which overcome safety issues. However, a common problem of these solid state materials is that they are not able to provide high ionic conductivity at ambient temperatures. Garnet-type cubic Li7La 3Zr2O12 ceramic material has attracted much interest because of …


Polymerizable Lipids For Controlled Functionalization Of Layered Materials, Kortney Kaye Rupp Aug 2016

Polymerizable Lipids For Controlled Functionalization Of Layered Materials, Kortney Kaye Rupp

Open Access Theses

Self-assembled monolayers (SAM’s) offer a straightforward approach to tailoring the interfacial properties of metals, metal oxides and semiconductors. Noncovalent functionalization of single-layer graphene offers the possibility to finely tune surface chemistry for future applications in electronics. Polymerization of photochemically reactive molecules in a lying-down phase has been used to increase the strength of intermolecular interactions between long alkanes and HOPG substrates. Long-chain fatty acid derivatives with internal diyne groups yield a conjugated ene-yne polymer upon UV irradiation. Diyne lipids with phosphocholine (diyne PC) and phosphoethanolamine (diyne PE) groups offer a charged form of the head group that is robust towards …


Metal-Promoted Self-Assembly Of Collagen Mimetic Peptides Into Biofunctional Scaffolds For Stem Cell Delivery With The Aim Of Tissue Regeneration, Kevin Strauss Aug 2016

Metal-Promoted Self-Assembly Of Collagen Mimetic Peptides Into Biofunctional Scaffolds For Stem Cell Delivery With The Aim Of Tissue Regeneration, Kevin Strauss

Open Access Theses

Collagen is a strong, sturdy, but malleable, protein found abundantly in the extracellular matrix. Consequently, it has become an invaluable biomaterial for use in regenerative medicine. However, natural collagen poses difficulties when it comes to customization and structural control, as well as the risk of infectious prions from animal sources. Our approach utilizes shorter, synthetic collagen mimetic peptide sequences. These peptides retain the incredible triple helical stability of natural collagen but can be modified with versatile metal-binding ligands. In the presence of an appropriate metal ion, the peptides self-assemble into diverse, three-dimensional morphologies. The peptide NCoH, functionalized with N-terminal NTA …


Purification And Preparation Of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins For Nmr Spectroscopy, Kyle Chamberlain Apr 2016

Purification And Preparation Of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins For Nmr Spectroscopy, Kyle Chamberlain

Open Access Theses

NMR spectroscopy has recently become a promising field for protein characterization and dynamic studies. As the technology and pulse sequences improve for tracking proteins, a greater demand for developing effective purification protocols to produce NMR grade protein samples have arisen. This thesis explores two proteins: histone H4 tail and Mucin 1; Two very different proteins that require different methods of expression and purification to achieve a high enough yield for NMR analysis. H4 is a water soluble protein that weighs ~2.7 kDa, and has no extinction coefficient. Since the protein is too small for many methods of expression and purification, …


Targeted Metabolomics On The Shikimate And Aromatic Amino Acid Biosynthetic Pathways, Robert E. Wheeler Apr 2016

Targeted Metabolomics On The Shikimate And Aromatic Amino Acid Biosynthetic Pathways, Robert E. Wheeler

Open Access Theses

The shikimate and aromatic amino acid biosynthesis pathways are some of the most studied biosynthetic pathways in nature due to their fundamental importance. Interest in this field stems from synthesis of the essential amino acids, tryptophan, tyrosine and phenylalanine. The pathways also are important as generating the precursors of thousands of secondary metabolites and lignin. Inhibiting the pathway has led to discovery of herbicides, pesticides as well as tuberculosis drugs. However there is currently a lack of a comprehensive targeted method for detecting and quantifying the majority of the intermediates in these pathways. Often multiple extraction and detection methods are …


A Bracketing Method For Proton Affinity Measurements Of Dehydro-And Didehydropyridines, Guannan Li Apr 2015

A Bracketing Method For Proton Affinity Measurements Of Dehydro-And Didehydropyridines, Guannan Li

Open Access Theses

Proton affinity (PA) is a fundamental property that is related to the structure and reactivity of a molecule. Currently, very few experimental PA values are available for organic radicals and none for biradicals. Equilibrium methods cannot be used for these measurements. The traditional bracketing method is based on monitoring reactions of different reference bases with known proton affinities with the protonated analyte for the occurrence of exothermic proton transfer to determine the upper and lower limits of proton affinity. However, the energy deposited into the precursor ions upon CAD when forming protonated radicals may cause endothermic proton transfer reactions occur …


Impact Of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds On Peroxyacetyl Nitrate Production In The Southeast United States, Christopher John Groff Apr 2015

Impact Of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds On Peroxyacetyl Nitrate Production In The Southeast United States, Christopher John Groff

Open Access Theses

Our atmosphere is arguably the fundamental entity that has made life on Earth possible. Knowledge of the delicate nature of our atmosphere continues to spread as "green" initiatives promote awareness of human influence on the environment. However, many climate scientists fear that unless immediate mitigation occurs, the reversal of human impact on our planet will be impossible, leading to unknown consequence. Perturbations to natural processes are likely to cause drastic change to the planet as we know it and ultimately result in significant health issues. It is important to push the boundaries of our understanding of atmospheric processes with intent …


Non-Covalent Affinity Materials For Protein Structure Determination Via Single Particle Reconstruction Analysis Cryo-Electron Microscopy, Minji Ha Apr 2015

Non-Covalent Affinity Materials For Protein Structure Determination Via Single Particle Reconstruction Analysis Cryo-Electron Microscopy, Minji Ha

Open Access Theses

Single particle analysis (SPA) by cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) is one of the powerful tools for determining biological macromolecule structure, particularly when combined with computational methods or X-ray crystallography. However, the SPA is challenged by sample processing efficiency. In this work, polyrotaxane (PRTx) was designed and synthesized such that laterally and rotationally mobile lysine nitrolicacetic acid (Lys-NTA) modified α-cyclodextrins (α-CD) were threaded onto a polyethylene glycol (PEG) core. Polyrotaxanes threaded with amine modified α-CD were also designed and synthesized for stoichiometric control of His-tagged protein capture by PRTx. For higher efficiency of single particle analysis along a single strand of …


New Strategies To Reveal Protein Candidates In Protein-Protein Interactome Study, Meng-Chieh Chen Oct 2014

New Strategies To Reveal Protein Candidates In Protein-Protein Interactome Study, Meng-Chieh Chen

Open Access Theses

Comprehensive protein-protein interaction network analysis can help reveal protein functions in a system-wide manner. A reliable knowledgebase of interaction networks is not only important for selecting the candidates for drug therapies, but also for evaluating the disease risk. In current interaction databases, 322579 interactions comprised of 56460 proteins have been reported (statistical analysis from APID: Agile Protein Interaction DataAnalyzer; http://bioinfow.dep.usal.es/apid/index.htm). The huge datasets are contributed mainly by yeast -two -hybrid (Y2H) screening and affinity-purification followed by mass spectrometry (AP-MS). High false positive rates and failing to cover certain interaction categories are the limitations of these two methods. Here, we developed …


High-Purity Gallium Analysis By Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry, Kyungjean Min Oct 2014

High-Purity Gallium Analysis By Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry, Kyungjean Min

Open Access Theses

The mobility of Two-dimensional Electron Gas in AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures that are grown in the Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) can be increased by purification of the gallium used to grow the films. To attain 200 million cm2/Vs mobility, the impurity concentration of gallium should be reduced to below 1 ppb. The commercial 7N (99.99999%) gallium with 100 ppb total impurity is currently used in the MBE at Purdue University and is being purified by zone refining. To evaluate the commercial 7N gallium and establish the methodology for the impurity measurement after zone refining, germanium, iron, and zinc in 6N and 7N …


Elucidating The Mechanism Of Phenylpropanoid Regulation By The Arabidopsis Mediator Complex, Wenjie Zeng Oct 2014

Elucidating The Mechanism Of Phenylpropanoid Regulation By The Arabidopsis Mediator Complex, Wenjie Zeng

Open Access Theses

The Mediator complex is a multi-protein co-regulator of eukaryotic transcription which plays a role in the expression of many, if not most, genes of the cell. Two Mediator subunits, REF4 and RFR1, were demonstrated to be important for the normal regulation of phenylpropanoid metabolism in Arabidopsis. Phenylpropanoids are a family of specialized plant metabolites derived from the amino acid phenylalanine and are involved in defense against pathogens, UV protection and structural support. In order to understand how Mediator regulates phenylpropanoid metabolism through REF4 and RFR1, a better basic understanding of this protein complex is required. Here I provide data on …


Reverse-Phase Liquid Chromatography Of Small Molecules Using Silica Colloidal Crystals, Natalya Khanina Oct 2014

Reverse-Phase Liquid Chromatography Of Small Molecules Using Silica Colloidal Crystals, Natalya Khanina

Open Access Theses

Capillaries packed with a silica colloidal crystal (SCC) of 470 nm nonporous particles have recently been shown to offer significant improvements in the peak width, resolution, and speed of protein analysis due to the reduction of the A and C term broadening contributions of the Van Deemter equation. While protein separations using this technology have shown vast improvements, small molecules remain largely unexplored. As the SCC allows for an approximately diffusion limited system, extremely high plate numbers are expected for small molecule separations. The research presented herein studies the feasibility of pressure-driven small molecule separation using SCCs and commercial instrumentation. …


Identifying Conditions To Optimize Lactic Acid Production From Food Waste, Raymond M. Redcorn Oct 2014

Identifying Conditions To Optimize Lactic Acid Production From Food Waste, Raymond M. Redcorn

Open Access Theses

There is an increased demand for lactic acid for the production of biopolymers and to aid nutrient removal in wastewater treatment. Food waste offers a source of soluble sugars to produce lactic acid, which does not increase land demand, but digestion conditions have yet to be optimized when co-digested with primary sludge. Food waste was collected from cafeteria waste bins, homogenized and seeded with primary sludge. A Box Behnken Response surface design was used to optimize lactic acid production based on pH, temperature, loading rate, and retention time. Subsequent experiments verified and refined those conditions to optimize for both yield …


Impact Of Nanostructure On Polymer-Based Nonvolatile Memory Devices, Seung Hyun Sung Oct 2014

Impact Of Nanostructure On Polymer-Based Nonvolatile Memory Devices, Seung Hyun Sung

Open Access Theses

Memory functionality is essential for many high-end electronic applications (e.g. , smart phones, personal computers). Particularly, organic nonvolatile memory devices based on polymer ferroelectric materials are a promising approach toward the development of low-cost memory due to the ease of processing and flexibility associated with the device. Here, we will focus on a memory device with a two-component active layer and a diode structure. This ferroelectric diode (FeD) has a nanostructured active layer, composed of ferroelectric and semiconducting polymers, and it can provide easy access to high-performance polymer-based memory devices. In order to create these nanostructured active layers, we …


Student's Objectives And Achievement Strategies For Laborataory Work, Taylor M. Owings Jul 2014

Student's Objectives And Achievement Strategies For Laborataory Work, Taylor M. Owings

Open Access Theses

In this study, we look at students' objectives and strategies for completing their objectives for undergraduate labs. Students across two universities and three levels of chemistry were surveyed at the beginning of the semester in the fall of 2012 using an open ended survey to identify the goals students had for the course. The students responses were coded and used to create a survey that went out to the same courses at the end of the fall semester. Using data from the fall of 2012, the survey was modified and data was collected in the fall of 2013 at one …


Abcb11 Functions With B1 And B19 To Regulate Rootward Auxin Transport, Jesica Elyse Reemmer Jul 2014

Abcb11 Functions With B1 And B19 To Regulate Rootward Auxin Transport, Jesica Elyse Reemmer

Open Access Theses

Auxin transport is essential for the architecture and development of erect plants. In a network of transporters directing auxin flows, ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) transporters are a ubiquitous family of proteins that actively transport important substrates, including auxins, across the plasma membrane. ABCB1 and ABCB19 have been shown to account for the majority of rootward auxin transport, but residual fluxes to the root tip in Arabidopsis b1b19 double mutants implies the involvement of at least one additional auxin transporter in this process. Of specific interest, the severe dwarfism seen in abcb1abcb19 is strikingly reminiscent of that seen in mutants defective in …


Characterization Of Water-Solid Interactions In Crystalline Ingredients And Development Of Deliquescence Measurement Recommendations, Matthew C. Allan Jul 2014

Characterization Of Water-Solid Interactions In Crystalline Ingredients And Development Of Deliquescence Measurement Recommendations, Matthew C. Allan

Open Access Theses

There are five major mechanisms of water-solid interactions. The primary focus of this thesis was on two of these: deliquescence and hydrate formation. Many crystalline food ingredients are deliquescent compounds (e.g., NaCl, sucrose, and ascorbic acid) and some are both deliquescent and hydrate formers (e.g., glucose, thiamine HCl, citric acid). Deliquescence is the first order phase transformation of a crystalline solid to a solution above a critical relative humidity (RH) known as the deliquescence point (RH0). A crystalline hydrate is a pseudo-polymorph in which water is incorporated into the crystal structure, altering the molecular formula and the physical properties.^ To …


Gas-Phase Ion/Ion Reactions Of Biomolecules: An Examination Of Carboxylate Reactivity And Arginine Based Non-Covalent Complexes, Nathan Zachary Barefoot Jul 2014

Gas-Phase Ion/Ion Reactions Of Biomolecules: An Examination Of Carboxylate Reactivity And Arginine Based Non-Covalent Complexes, Nathan Zachary Barefoot

Open Access Theses

The advent of Electrospray Ionization with the ability to generate multiply charges ions has contributed significantly to the study of gas-phase ion/ion reactions. With the tools available in mass spectrometry it has been shown that these reactions are effective at transforming one type of gaseous ion into another through a series of reactions. This work examines some of these reactions and their application to field of proteomics specifically focusing on the amino acids of arginine and lysine. NHS reagents have been shown to react to both of these molecules with in the gas-phase under different conditions but have relies on …


Correlating Molecular Architecture Of A Radical Polymer Based Copolymer With Its Electrical Transport Properties, Holly Chan Jul 2014

Correlating Molecular Architecture Of A Radical Polymer Based Copolymer With Its Electrical Transport Properties, Holly Chan

Open Access Theses

The design and synthesis of electrically-conductive macromolecules can lead to significant improvements in the performance of polymer-based energy conversion devices (e.g., thermoelectric devices). For these organic electronic devices, conjugated polymers have dominated the area of conductive polymers; however, these materials are usually synthesized using conditions that lead to poorly-defined polymers. Furthermore, in these increasingly-standard polymers, the charge transport ability of the polymer thin films is largely affected by the degree of crystallinity, which is a difficult property to control in a reproducible fashion. Therefore, we seek to explore a new class of amorphous, non-conjugated polymers containing a stable radical …


Separation Of On-Column Labeled Model Proteins With Packed Capillary Electrophoresis, Yingxu Hao Jul 2014

Separation Of On-Column Labeled Model Proteins With Packed Capillary Electrophoresis, Yingxu Hao

Open Access Theses

Protein drugs are increasingly developed in the pharmaceutical company. Under the regulation of FDA, high purity of therapeutic proteins needs to be maintained. Before putting those drugs in the market, fast and efficient method is in need to achieve homogeneity. Traditionally, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), capillary electrophoresis (CE), and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) are used for the purification process. These methods have the disadvantages of low time and cost efficiency, and this quality assurance process has become the bottleneck of production. In our group, sub-micron silica colloidal particles with polyacrylamide layer on the surface are packed inside capillaries to increase the …


Physical And Chemical Attributes Of A Genetically Modified Fruit Pectin, Carl Patrick Littrell Jul 2014

Physical And Chemical Attributes Of A Genetically Modified Fruit Pectin, Carl Patrick Littrell

Open Access Theses

Pectin is an important polymer used in the food industry as a thickening and gelling agent. Though pectin is ubiquitous in plants, chemical and structural differences among pectin molecules prevent most from being viable for industrial use. Enzymes found naturally in fruit cell walls during the ripening process impair many desirable attributes of fruit pectins, rendering them unsuitable for industrial applications. Pectin methylesterase (PME) is one such enzyme whose expression can be altered during ripening through the use of recombinant genetic engineering. Reduction in levels of PME results in increased degree of methylation and molecular size of pectin, greatly increasing …


Investigation Into The Control Of Melittin Secondary Structure And Antimicrobial Activity, Zachary B. Molinets Jul 2014

Investigation Into The Control Of Melittin Secondary Structure And Antimicrobial Activity, Zachary B. Molinets

Open Access Theses

Antimicrobial resistance has been an exponentially growing problem since the discovery of antibiotics. Antibiotics have been misused for many years and this misuse has grown into a real problem for the medical community. While there are countless safeguards to prevent infection by a resistant strain of bacteria, there are still many plagued by it and must be treated with sometimes dangerous antibiotics. Melittin, along with many other peptides, contain potent antimicrobial properties, but are also toxic toward enthrocytes. The control of the secondary structure of peptides provides the key to adjusting their activity.


Preparation & Characterization Of High Purity Cu2 Znsn(Sxse1-X)4 Nanoparticles, Bethlehem G. Negash Jul 2014

Preparation & Characterization Of High Purity Cu2 Znsn(Sxse1-X)4 Nanoparticles, Bethlehem G. Negash

Open Access Theses

Research in thin film solar cells applies novel techniques to synthesize cost effective and highly efficient absorber materials in order to generate electricity directly from solar energy. Of these materials, copper zinc tin sulfoselenide (Cu2ZnSn(SxSe1-x) 4) nanoparticles have shown great promise in solar cell applications due to optimal material properties as well as low cost & relative abundance of materials.1,2 Sulfoselenide nanoparticles have also a broader impact in other industries including electronics3, LED 4, and biomedical research5. Of the many routes of manufacturing these class of semiconductors, …


Synthesis And Characterization Of Crystalline Iron Nanoparticles From Zerovalent Iron Sandwich Complexes, Anh Tue Nguyen Jul 2014

Synthesis And Characterization Of Crystalline Iron Nanoparticles From Zerovalent Iron Sandwich Complexes, Anh Tue Nguyen

Open Access Theses

In this project we present a systematic study on the synthesis of crystalline iron nanocubes by thermal decomposition of an iron sandwich complex, ( π-C5H5)Fe0(π-C 6H7), in the presence of oleylamine and oleylamine.HCl as surfactants and n-decane as a solvent. The presence of oleylamine.HCl is essential for the reproducible formation of crystalline iron cores.^ Reaction parameters such as temperature, surfactant concentration, effect of counterion, and organoiron reagent structure were investigated in order to obtain iron nanoparticles with uniform size and shape. The nanoparticles, which were characterized by …


The Development Of 6.7% Efficient Copper Zinc Indium Selenide Devices From Copper Zinc Indium Sulfide Nanocrystal Inks, Brian Kemp Graeser Apr 2014

The Development Of 6.7% Efficient Copper Zinc Indium Selenide Devices From Copper Zinc Indium Sulfide Nanocrystal Inks, Brian Kemp Graeser

Open Access Theses

As solar cell absorber materials, alloys of CuIn(S,Se)2 and Zn(S,Se) provide an opportunity to reduce the usage of indium along with the ability to tune the band gap. Here we report successful synthesis of alloyed (CuInS2 )0.5(ZnS)0.5 nanocrystals by a method that solely uses oleylamine as the liquid medium for synthesis. The reactive sintering of a thin film of these nanocrystals via selenization at 500 °C results in a uniform composition alloy (CuIn(S,Se)2 )0.5 (Zn(S,Se)) 0.5 layer with micron size grains. Due to the large amount of zinc in the film, the sintered grains exhibit the zinc blende structure instead …


Investigation Of Isotope Effects Of Ozone As A Function Of Temperature, Daniel J. Mcmahon Apr 2014

Investigation Of Isotope Effects Of Ozone As A Function Of Temperature, Daniel J. Mcmahon

Open Access Theses

Ozone is an important oxidizer in the atmosphere and plays a crucial role as a cleanser, removing various compounds such NOx and SOx. It also is intriguing to those that study stable isotopes as it has a unique signature found in no other oxygen containing molecule. Ozone is observed to fractionate mass independently, which means it does not follow the typical δ 17 O /δ18 O = 0.52 ratio expected for molecules enriched with 17 O and 18 O. The magnitude of ozone's mass independent enrichment has been studied in laboratory experiments and atmospheric observations but its explanation is still …


Applications Of Calculated Second Harmonic Generation Tensors On Monomolecular And Bimolecular Systems, Gregory R. Snyder Apr 2014

Applications Of Calculated Second Harmonic Generation Tensors On Monomolecular And Bimolecular Systems, Gregory R. Snyder

Open Access Theses

The field of nonlinear optics (NLO) has proven itself as a relatively recent and powerful area of science in the areas of microscopy and high-sensitivity quantification measurements. In particular, symmetry selective NLO processes such as second harmonic generation (SHG) take advantage of symmetry rules to cancel background noise almost completely, leading to both high resolution images and limits of detection (LOD) in the photon counting range. Background noise in SHG is negated as result of signal cancellation in systems containing inversion symmetry; generally isotropic sources. Quantum mechanical computational chemistry has enriched the field of NLO by enabling studies on hypothetical …


Effect Of Multivalent Ions On The Swelling And Mechanical Behavior Of Superabsorbent Polymers (Saps) For Mitigation Of Mortar Autogenous Shrinkage, Qian Zhu Apr 2014

Effect Of Multivalent Ions On The Swelling And Mechanical Behavior Of Superabsorbent Polymers (Saps) For Mitigation Of Mortar Autogenous Shrinkage, Qian Zhu

Open Access Theses

The chemical and physical structure-property relationships of model superabsorbent polymer (SAP) hydrogels were characterized with respect to swelling behavior and mechanical properties in different ionic solutions (Na+ , Ca2+ , and Al3+ ). The model hydrogels were composed of poly(sodium acrylate-acrylamide) (PANa-PAM) copolymer with varying concentrations of PANa (0, 17, 33, 67, and 83 wt.%) and covalent crosslinking densities of 1, 1.5, and 2 wt.%. By synthesizing the hydrogels in-house, systems with independently tunable amounts of covalent crosslinking and anionic functional groups were created, allowing for the relative effects of covalent and ionic crosslinking on the properties of the hydrogels …