Regulation of the intermittent release of giant unilamellar vesicles under osmotic pressure

Osmotic pressure can break the fluid balance between intracellular and extracellular solutions. In hypo-osmotic solution, water molecules, which transfer into the cell and burst, are driven by the concentrations difference of solute across the semi-permeable membrane. The complicated dynamic processes of the intermittent burst have been previously observed. However, the underlying physical mechanism has yet to be thoroughly explored and analyzed. Here, the intermittent release of inclusion in giant unilamellar vesicles was investigated quantitatively, applying the combination of experimental and theoretical methods in the hypo-osmotic medium. Experimentally, we adopted highly sensitive EMCCD to acquire intermittent dynamic images. Notably, the component of the vesicle phospholipids affected the stretch velocity, and the prepared solution of the vesicle adjusted the release time. Theoretically, we chose equations numerical simulations to quantify the dynamic process in phases and explored the influence of physical parameters such as bilayer permeability and solution viscosity on the process. It was concluded that the time taken to achieve the balance of giant unilamellar vesicles was highly dependent on the structure of the lipid molecular. The pore lifetime was strongly related with the internal solution environment of giant unilamellar vesicles. The vesicle prepared in viscous solution accessed visualized long-lived pore. Furthermore, the line tension was measured quantitatively by the release velocity of inclusion, which was in the same order of magnitude as the theoretical simulation. In all, the experimental values well matched the theoretical values. Our investigation clarified the physical regulatory mechanism of intermittent pore formation and inclusion release, which had an important reference for the development of novel technologies such as gene therapy based on transmembrane transport as well as controlled drug delivery based on liposomes.

A Biofouling Resistant Zwitterionic Polysulfone Membrane Prepared by a Dual-Bath Procedure

This study introduces a zwitterionic material to modify polysulfone (PSf) membranes formed by a dual bath procedure, in view of reducing their fouling propensity. The zwitterionic copolymer, derived from a random polymer of styrene and 4-vinylpyrridine and referred to as zP(S-r-4VP), was incorporated to the PSf solution without any supplementary pore-forming additive to study the effect of the sole copolymer on membrane-structuring, chemical, and arising properties. XPS and mapping FT-IR provided evidence of the modification. Macrovoids appeared and then disappeared as the copolymer content increased in the range 1–4 wt%. The copolymer has hydrophilic units and its addition increases the casting solution viscosity. Both effects play an opposite role on transfers, and so on the growth of macrovoids. Biofouling tests demonstrated the efficiency of the copolymer to mitigate biofouling with a reduction in bacterial and blood cell attachment by more than 85%. Filtration tests revealed that the permeability increased by a twofold factor, the flux recovery ratio was augmented from 40% to 63% after water/BSA cycles, and irreversible fouling was reduced by 1/3. Although improvements are needed, these zwitterionic PSf membranes could be used in biomedical applications where resistance to biofouling by cells is a requirement.

Flexible crosslinking of polyurethane using grafted poly(dimethylsiloxane) with Epichlorohydrin and Bisphenol A end groups and its impact on the mechanical properties and low-temperature flexibility

Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) was grafted onto polyurethane (PU), and Epichlorohydrin and Bisphenol A were attached to the free ends of PDMS groups and used to link the grafted PDMS to thereby introduce flexible crosslinks between the PU chains. The flexible crosslinks enhanced the crosslink density and solution viscosity of PU but did not change the melting and crystallization behaviors of the soft segments of PU. In particular, the flexible PDMS crosslinks increased the maximum tensile stress by up to 300% and the maximum tensile strain up to 180%. The shape recovery capability at 10°C and the shape retention capability at −25°C were maintained above 90% with the flexible crosslinking. Grafted PDMS moderately improved the low-temperature flexibility of PU due to its flexibility at low temperature. The flexible crosslinks of grafted PDMS successfully improved the tensile strength, shape recovery, and low-temperature flexibility of the PU.

Research on the Influence of Sodium Ion on Mechanism of Polymer Solution Viscosity Loss

The researches on the influence of sodium ion on mechanism of polymer solution viscosity loss were conducted. Scanning electron microscopy was used to analyze the polymer microstructure. Molecular dynamics simulation was employed to reveal the influence of sodium ion on the polymer molecular configuration. The results shown: the polymer viscosity loss was more than 70% when the concentration of sodium ion was above 4000 mg/L. The results of microstructure and molecular conformation analysis indicated that the main reason of viscosity loss was the electrostatic attraction between sodium ion and negatively charged groups of polymer molecule chains, which cause compression of polymer molecular chain. The coil and shrinkage of polymer molecular chain led to the breakage of the spatial network structure of macromolecules.

The Synthesis of Associative Copolymers with Both Amphoteric and Hydrophobic Groups and the Effect of the Degree of Association on the Instability of Emulsions

The acrylamide (AM)/methacryloyl ethyl sulfobetaine (SPE)/behenyl polyoxyethylene ether methacrylate (BEM) terpolymer (PASB) was synthesized by soap-free emulsion polymerization. Four types of PASBs were synthesized by adjusting the moles of AM and BEM with constant total moles of monomers. The synthesized copolymers were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, molecular weight, and viscosity. By measuring the microscopic morphology and backscattered light intensity of the emulsions, the instability process of the emulsions prepared by PASBs was investigated in detail. The main instability processes of the emulsions prepared from PASBs within 45 min were flocculation and coalescence. The intermolecular association of copolymer PASBs was dominated by the behenyl functional groups on the molecular chains. The stability of the emulsions, which were prepared from isoviscosity aqueous solutions controlled by the concentration of the associative copolymers, was increased with the degree of association of copolymers. The hydrophobic association between the copolymer molecules can further slow down the flocculation and coalescence of the emulsion droplets on the basis of the same aqueous solution viscosity, which is one of the reasons for improving the stability of the emulsion.

Effects of Viscosities and Solution Composition on Core-Sheath Electrospun Polycaprolactone(PCL) Nanoporous Microtubes

Vascularization for tissue engineering applications has been challenging over the past decades. Numerous efforts have been made to fabricate artificial arteries and veins, while few focused on capillary vascularization. In this paper, core-sheath electrospinning was adopted to fabricate nanoporous microtubes that mimic the native capillaries. The results showed that both solution viscosity and polyethylene oxide (PEO) ratio in polycaprolactone (PCL) sheath solution had significant effects on microtube diameter. Adding PEO into PCL sheath solution is also beneficial to surface pore formation, although the effects of further increasing PEO showed mixed results in different viscosity groups. Our study showed that the high viscosity group with a PCL/PEO ratio of 3:1 resulted in the highest average microtube diameter (2.14 µm) and pore size (250 nm), which mimics the native human capillary size of 1–10 µm. Therefore, our microtubes show high potential in tissue vascularization of engineered scaffolds.

ELECTROSPINNING OF ANTIBACTERIAL POLYURETHANE/ZnO NANOFIBERS

In this study, it is aimed to produce and characterize antibacterial polyurethane (PU)/Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofibers by electrospinning method. Firstly, polymer solutions were prepared at various ZnO concentrations such as 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1. Then solution properties (conductivity, viscosity, surface tension) were determined and analysed the effects of ZnO concentration on the solution properties. PU/ZnO nanofibers produced via electrospinning under the optimum process parameters (voltage, distance between electrodes, feed rate and atmospheric conditions). Finally, the nanofibers were characterized in terms of fibre morphology, thermal stability, permeability and antibacterial activity using SEM-EDS, DSC-TGA, water vapour permeability and disk diffusion methods. According to the solution results; it was observed that conductivity and surface tension decrease significantly with ZnO addition. On the other hand, solution viscosity increases as the ZnO concentration increases. From the SEM images, it has been seen clearly that average fibre diameter increases with ZnO concentration and incorporation of ZnO particles to the fibre structure was verified by SEM-EDS. According to the thermal analyse result, nanofibers begin to degrade between 271.94 ºC and 298.73 ºC. In addition, water vapour permeability increases as the ZnO concentration increase. Lastly antibacterial activity against gram negative (E.coli) and gram positive (S. aureus) was determined with specific zone diameter.

Electrospinning Processing Techniques for the Manufacturing of Composite Dielectric Elastomer Fibers

Dielectric elastomers (DE) are novel composite architectures capable of large actuation strains and the ability to be formed into a variety of actuator configurations. However, the high voltage requirement of DE actuators limits their applications for a variety of applications. Fiber actuators composed of DE fibers are particularly attractive as they can be formed into artificial muscle architectures. The interest in manufacturing micro or nanoscale DE fibers is increasing due to the possible applications in tissue engineering, filtration, drug delivery, catalysis, protective textiles, and sensors. Drawing, self-assembly, template-direct synthesis, and electrospinning processing have been explored to manufacture these fibers. Electrospinning has been proposed because of its ability to produce sub-mm diameter size fibers. In this paper, we investigate the impact of electrospinning parameters on the production of composite dielectric elastomer fibers. In an electrospinning setup, an electrostatic field is applied to a viscous polymer solution at an electrode’s tip. The polymer composite with carbon black and carbon nanotubes is expelled and accelerated towards a collector. Factors that are considered in this study include polymer concentration, solution viscosity, flow rate, electric field intensity, and the distance to the collector.