Polysaccharides are natural polymers with hydrophilic, biocompatible and biodegradable characteristics and have many opportunities in the food and pharmaceutical sectors. This review focuses on the field of nano and microstructures whose internal structure is based on networked polysaccharide chains in 3D i.e., polysaccharide nanogels (NGs) and microgels (MGs). As it is observed the number of articles on NGs and MGs in peer reviewed scientific journals has been increasing over the last two decades. At the same time, the relative contribution of polysaccharides in this field is gaining place. This review focuses on the different applied methods for the fabrication of a variety of polysaccharide-based NGs and MGs and aims to highlight the recent advances on the subject and present their potentials and properties with regards to their integration in aspects of medicinal and food sciences. The presentation of the recent advances in the application of polysaccharide NGs and MGs is divided in materials with potential as emulsion stabilizers and materials with potential as carriers of bioactives. For applications in the medical sector the division is based on the fabrication processes and includes self-assembled, electrostatically complexed/ionically crosslinked and chemically crosslinked NGs and MGs. It is concluded that many advances are expected in the application of these polysaccharide-based materials and in particular as nutrient-loaded emulsion stabilizers, viscosity modifiers and co-assembled structures in combination with proteins.

Polyelectrolytes have been at the center of interdisciplinary research for many decades. In the field of polymer science and soft matter, they have provided the dimensions of electrostatic interactions, which opens a vast variety of opportunities for new physical properties and applications. In biological matter, polyelectrolytes are present in many forms, from extracellular polysaccharides to complex DNA molecules and proteins. This review discusses the recent research on polyelectrolytes covering the fundamental level of their conformations and nanostructures, their molecular interactions with materials that have close relevance to bioapplications and their applications in the biomedical field. This approach is motivated by the fact that the polyelectrolyte research is constantly active in all the aforementioned levels and continually affects many critical scientific areas.

A new detection system based on an array of ³He tubes and innovative fast detection electronics has been installed on the high-intensity small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) diffractometer KWS-2 operated by the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at the Heinz Meier-Leibnitz Zentrum in Garching, Germany. The new detection system is composed of 18 eight-pack modules of ³He tubes that work independently of one another (each unit has its own processor and electronics). To improve the read-out characteristics and reduce the noise, the detection electronics are mounted in a closed case on the rear of the ³He tubes' frame. The tubes' efficiency is about 85% (for λ = 5 Å) and the resolution slightly better than 8 mm. The new detection system is characterized by a dead-time constant of 3.3 µs per tube and an overall count rate as high as 6 MHz at 10% dead-time loss. Compared with the old detector this is an improvement by a factor of 60. The much higher count rate will shorten the measurement times and thus increase the number of experiments possible in a given time period by the optimal use of the high flux of up to 2 × 10⁸ n cm⁻² s⁻¹ at the sample position. Combined with the event-mode operation capability, this will enable new scientific opportunities in the field of structural investigations of small soft-matter and biological systems. The implementation of the detector in the high-intensity concept on KWS-2, its characterization and its performance based on test experiments are reported in this paper.