scholarly journals Ultralight open cell polymer sponges with advanced properties by PPX CVD coating

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (15) ◽  
pp. 2759-2764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaigai Duan ◽  
Shaohua Jiang ◽  
Tobias Moss ◽  
Seema Agarwal ◽  
Andreas Greiner

Ultralight hydrophobic polymer sponges with enhanced compressive strength prepared by electrospinning and PPX coating showed tuneable density, compression strength, and water contact angle, and low thermal conductivity. On holding a piece of such a sponge in hand, one does not feel the cold from dry ice.

2018 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 1013-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongrong Yu ◽  
Mingwei Tian ◽  
Lijun Qu ◽  
Shifeng Zhu ◽  
Jianhua Ran ◽  
...  

Cotton fabrics with hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic asymmetric surfaces are attractive as potential utilizable structures for functional garments. The spray-coating route could be deemed as a fast and simple way to achieve asymmetric surfaces. In this paper, SiO2 nanoparticles with size ∼ 205 nm were synthesized via the modified sol-gel method, and then modified with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) to form a hydrophobic surface. The SiO2 nanoparticles modified with PVDF were uniformly deposited on the outer surface of cotton fabric aided with the robust air flow force from the sprayer. The morphology and chemical structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, mapping, atomic force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicated that SiO2 nanoparticles were evenly deposited on the surface of cotton fibers and stable interfacial interaction occurred between SiO2 and PVDF molecular chains. The existence of SiO2 could increase the roughness of the fabric surface, which could enhance the water-repellent property of the coated fabrics. Furthermore, the water-repellent property and thermal insulation properties were evaluated via the water contact angle and thermal conductivity tests, respectively, and the results showed that 20 wt.% SiO2/PVDF fabric achieved a desirable level of contact angle, 136.6°, which was the largest water contact angle among all the samples, and the lowest thermal conductivity of 0.033 W/mK, resulting from the existence of SiO2 nanoparticles. Such a fast and simple spray-coating strategy could be widely introduced into asymmetric fabric modification, and such asymmetric fabrics with reasonable water-repellent and thermal insulating outer surfaces could act as candidates in the field of functional garments.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 5407
Author(s):  
Hyeju Kang ◽  
Sukpyo Kang ◽  
Byoungky Lee

In this study, the compressive strength and water contact angle of mortar specimens prepared by mixing two types of water repellent with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and rapid-hardening cement mortar were measured before and after surface abrasion. In addition, the hydration products and chemical bonding of cement mortar with the repellents were examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to evaluate the performance of these cement mortar mixtures as repair materials. We found that the fast-hardening cement mortar mixture containing the oligomer water repellent showed the best performance with a high compressive strength and large water contact angle. With the oligomer water repellent, the rapid-hardening cement mortar mixture showed contact angles of 131° and 126° even after a 2 mm abrasion, thereby confirming that the water repellent secured hydrophobicity through strong bonding with the entire cement mortar as well as its surface. The compressive strengths were found to be 34.5 MPa at 3 h and 54.8 MPa at 28 days, confirming that hydration occurred well despite the addition of water repellent.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 3096
Author(s):  
Naji Kharouf ◽  
Youri Arntz ◽  
Ammar Eid ◽  
Jihed Zghal ◽  
Salvatore Sauro ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to compare the physicochemical properties, filling ability, and antibacterial activity of a premixed calcium silicate-based sealer to those of a powder–liquid bioceramic sealer. Ceraseal (CS) and BioRoot (BR) materials were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy at 7 and 14 d of immersion in distilled water. The filling ability of the two sealers as well as the water contact angle, solubility, flow, roughness, crystalline microstructure, pH, and compressive strength were also evaluated. The antibacterial activity was assessed through an agar diffusion as well as through direct tests. All the results were statistically analyzed using one-way or two-way analysis of variance tests. Statistically significant lower void percentages were observed for CS at 2 and 8 mm from the working length (WL) compared to those for the BR group, whilst no significant difference was observed at 5 mm from the WL. BR sealer showed higher alkaline pH, rougher surface, lower water contact angle values, lower flowability, and higher solubility compared to CS. BR showed globular and needle-like crystalline microstructure, whilst CS had globular and flower-like crystalline microstructure up to 72 h. No statistical difference was found for the compressive strength between the two sealers. BR and CS showed no antibacterial effect against Enterococcus faecalis after 3 h, whilst both sealers showed antibacterial capacity after 24 and 72 h. BR demonstrated higher antibacterial activity after 24 h. In conclusion, the use of bioceramic sealers may play an important role in controlling bacterial growth. Moreover, CS may have superior filling ability and lower solubility than the BioRoot sealer due to its specific chemical composition and mixing method.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muayad Al-shaeli ◽  
Stefan J. D. Smith ◽  
Shanxue Jiang ◽  
Huanting Wang ◽  
Kaisong Zhang ◽  
...  

<p>In this study, novel <a>mixed matrix polyethersulfone (PES) membranes</a> were synthesized by using two different kinds of metal organic frameworks (MOFs), namely UiO-66 and UiO-66-NH<sub>2</sub>. The composite membranes were characterised by SEM, EDX, FTIR, PXRD, water contact angle, porosity, pore size, etc. Membrane performance was investigated by water permeation flux, flux recovery ratio, fouling resistance and anti-fouling performance. The stability test was also conducted for the prepared mixed matrix membranes. A higher reduction in the water contact angle was observed after adding both MOFs to the PES and sulfonated PES membranes compared to pristine PES membranes. An enhancement in membrane performance was observed by embedding the MOF into PES membrane matrix, which may be attributed to the super-hydrophilic porous structure of UiO-66-NH<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles and hydrophilic structure of UiO-66 nanoparticles that could accelerate the exchange rate between solvent and non-solvent during the phase inversion process. By adding the MOFs into PES matrix, the flux recovery ratio was increased greatly (more than 99% for most mixed matrix membranes). The mixed matrix membranes showed higher resistance to protein adsorption compared to pristine PES membranes. After immersing the membranes in water for 3 months, 6 months and 12 months, both MOFs were stable and retained their structure. This study indicates that UiO-66 and UiO-66-NH<sub>2</sub> are great candidates for designing long-term stable mixed matrix membranes with higher anti-fouling performance.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Sikora ◽  
Dariusz Czylkowski ◽  
Bartosz Hrycak ◽  
Magdalena Moczała-Dusanowska ◽  
Marcin Łapiński ◽  
...  

AbstractThis paper presents the results of experimental investigations of the plasma surface modification of a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) polymer and PMMA composites with a [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester fullerene derivative (PC61BM). An atmospheric pressure microwave (2.45 GHz) argon plasma sheet was used. The experimental parameters were: an argon (Ar) flow rate (up to 20 NL/min), microwave power (up to 530 W), number of plasma scans (up to 3) and, the kind of treated material. In order to assess the plasma effect, the possible changes in the wettability, roughness, chemical composition, and mechanical properties of the plasma-treated samples’ surfaces were evaluated by water contact angle goniometry (WCA), atomic force microscopy (AFM), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The best result concerning the water contact angle reduction was from 83° to 29.7° for the PMMA material. The ageing studies of the PMMA plasma-modified surface showed long term (100 h) improved wettability. As a result of plasma treating, changes in the samples surface roughness parameters were observed, however their dependence on the number of plasma scans is irregular. The ATR-FTIR spectra of the PMMA plasma-treated surfaces showed only slight changes in comparison with the spectra of an untreated sample. The more significant differences were demonstrated by XPS measurements indicating the surface chemical composition changes after plasma treatment and revealing the oxygen to carbon ratio increase from 0.1 to 0.4.


Author(s):  
Wei Lee Lim ◽  
Shiplu Roy Chowdhury ◽  
Min Hwei Ng ◽  
Jia Xian Law

Tissue-engineered substitutes have shown great promise as a potential replacement for current tissue grafts to treat tendon/ligament injury. Herein, we have fabricated aligned polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin (GT) nanofibers and further evaluated their physicochemical properties and biocompatibility. PCL and GT were mixed at a ratio of 100:0, 70:30, 50:50, 30:70, 0:100, and electrospun to generate aligned nanofibers. The PCL/GT nanofibers were assessed to determine the diameter, alignment, water contact angle, degradation, and surface chemical analysis. The effects on cells were evaluated through Wharton’s jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cell (WJ-MSC) viability, alignment and tenogenic differentiation. The PCL/GT nanofibers were aligned and had a mean fiber diameter within 200–800 nm. Increasing the GT concentration reduced the water contact angle of the nanofibers. GT nanofibers alone degraded fastest, observed only within 2 days. Chemical composition analysis confirmed the presence of PCL and GT in the nanofibers. The WJ-MSCs were aligned and remained viable after 7 days with the PCL/GT nanofibers. Additionally, the PCL/GT nanofibers supported tenogenic differentiation of WJ-MSCs. The fabricated PCL/GT nanofibers have a diameter that closely resembles the native tissue’s collagen fibrils and have good biocompatibility. Thus, our study demonstrated the suitability of PCL/GT nanofibers for tendon/ligament tissue engineering applications.


2016 ◽  
Vol 879 ◽  
pp. 2524-2527
Author(s):  
Masazumi Okido ◽  
Kensuke Kuroda

Surface hydrophilicity is considered to have a strong influence on the biological reactions of bone-substituting materials. However, the influence of a hydrophilic or hydrophobic surface on the osteoconductivity is not completely clear. In this study, we produced super-hydrophilic and hydrophobic surface on Ti-and Zr-alloys. Hydrothermal treatment at 180 oC for 180 min. in the distilled water and immersion in x5 PBS(-) brought the super-hydrophilic surface (water contact angle < 10 (deg.)) and heat treatment of as-hydrothermaled the hydrophobic surface. The osteoconductivity of the surface treated samples with several water contact angle was evaluated by in vivo testing. The surface properties, especially water contact angle, strongly affected the osteoconductivity and protein adsorbability, and not the surface substance.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 2058
Author(s):  
Kyutae Seo ◽  
Hyo Kang

We synthesized a series of polystyrene derivatives modified with precursors of liquid crystal (LC) molecules via polymer modification reactions. Thereafter, the orientation of the LC molecules on the polymer films, which possess part of the corresponding LC molecular structure, was investigated systematically. The precursors and the corresponding derivatives used in this study include ethyl-p-hydroxybenzoate (homopolymer P2BO and copolymer P2BO#, where # indicates the molar fraction of ethylbenzoate-p-oxymethyl in the side chain (# = 20, 40, 60, and 80)), n-butyl-p-hydroxybenzoate (P4BO), n-hexyl-p-hydroxybenzoate (P6BO), and n-octyl-p-hydroxybenzoate (P8BO). A stable and uniform vertical orientation of LC molecules was observed in LC cells fabricated with P2BO#, with 40 mol% or more ethylbenzoate-p-oxymethyl side groups. In addition, the LC molecules were oriented vertically in LC cells fabricated with homopolymers of P2BO, P4BO, P6BO, and P8BO. The water contact angle on the polymer films can be associated with the vertical orientation of the LC molecules in the LC cells fabricated with the polymer films. For example, vertical LC orientation was observed when the water contact angle of the polymer films was greater than ~86°. Good orientation stability was observed at 150 °C and with 20 J/cm2 of UV irradiation for LC cells fabricated with the P2BO film.


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