scholarly journals The Effect of the PVA/Chitosan/Citric Acid Ratio on the Hydrophilicity of Electrospun Nanofiber Meshes

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 3557
Author(s):  
Zsuzsanna Czibulya ◽  
Attila Csík ◽  
Ferenc Tóth ◽  
Petra Pál ◽  
István Csarnovics ◽  
...  

In this study, scaffolds were prepared via an electrospinning method for application in oral cavities. The hydrophilicity of the fiber mesh is of paramount importance, as it promotes cell spreading; however, the most commonly used polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and other hydrophilic fiber meshes immediately disintegrate in aqueous media. In contrast, the excessive hydrophobicity of the scaffolds already inhibits cells adhesion on the surface. Therefore, the hydrophilicity of the fiber meshes needed to be optimized. Scaffolds with different polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/chitosan/citric acid ratios were prepared. The addition of chitosan and the heat initiated cross-linkage of the polymers via citric acid enhanced the scaffolds’ hydrophobicity. The optimization of this property could be followed by contact angle measurements, and the increased number of cross-linkages were also supported by IR spectroscopy results. The fibers’ physical parameters were monitored via low-vacuum scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). As biocompatibility is essential for dental applications, Alamar Blue assay was used to prove that meshes do not have any negative effects on dental pulp stem cells. Our results showed that the optimization of the fiber nets was successful, as they will not disintegrate in intraoral cavities during dental applications.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelina Soccio ◽  
Nadia Lotti ◽  
Andrea Munari ◽  
Esther Rebollar ◽  
Daniel E Martínez-Tong

<p>Nanostructured wrinkles were developed on fully bio-based poly(trimethylene furanoate) (PTF) films by using the technique of Laser Induced Periodic Surface Structures (LIPSS). We investigated the effect of irradiation time on wrinkle formation using an UV pulsed laser source, at a fluence of 8 mJ/cm2. It was found that the pulse range between 600 and 4800 pulses allowed formation of periodic nanometric ripples. The nanostructured surface was studied using a combined macro- and nanoscale approach. We evaluated possible physicochemical changes taking place on the polymer surface after irradiation by infrared spectroscopy, contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy. The macroscopic physicochemical properties of PTF showed almost no changes after nanostructure formation, differently from the results previously found for the terephthalic counterparts, as poly(ethyleneterephthalate), PET, and poly(trimethyleneterephthalate), PTT. The surface mechanical properties of the nanostructured PTF were found to be improved, as evidenced by nanomechanical force spectroscopy measurements. In particular, an increased Young’s modulus and higher stiffness for the nanostructured sample were measured. <br></p>


Coatings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Paul Schmitt ◽  
Vivek Beladiya ◽  
Nadja Felde ◽  
Pallabi Paul ◽  
Felix Otto ◽  
...  

Ultra-thin metallic films are widely applied in optics and microelectronics. However, their properties differ significantly from the bulk material and depend on the substrate material. The nucleation, film growth, and layer properties of atomic layer deposited (ALD) iridium thin films are evaluated on silicon wafers, BK7, fused silica, SiO2, TiO2, Ta2O5, Al2O3, HfO2, Ru, Cr, Mo, and graphite to understand the influence of various substrate materials. This comprehensive study was carried out using scanning electron and atomic force microscopy, X-ray reflectivity and diffraction, four-point probe resistivity and contact angle measurements, tape tests, and Auger electron spectroscopy. Within few ALD cycles, iridium islands occur on all substrates. Nevertheless, their size, shape, and distribution depend on the substrate. Ultra-thin (almost) closed Ir layers grow on a Ta2O5 seed layer after 100 cycles corresponding to about 5 nm film thickness. In contrast, the growth on Al2O3 and HfO2 is strongly inhibited. The iridium growth on silicon wafers is overall linear. On BK7, fused silica, SiO2, TiO2, Ta2O5, Ru, Cr, and graphite, three different growth regimes are distinguishable. The surface free energy of the substrates correlates with their iridium nucleation delay. Our work, therefore, demonstrates that substrates can significantly tailor the properties of ultra-thin films.


Crystals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 645
Author(s):  
Myung-Gyun Baek ◽  
Johng-Eon Shin ◽  
Dong-Hyun Hwang ◽  
Sung-Hoon Kim ◽  
Hong-Gyu Park ◽  
...  

Herein, we examined changes in the interfacial properties of organic light-emitting diodes when n-decyltrimethoxysilane (CH3SAM) was deposited on the surface of an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode for various deposition times. It was revealed that the interfacial properties varied with deposition time. As the latter increased, so did the measured value of the contact angle, and ITO substrate exhibited a lower wettability. The contact angle measurements for bare ITO at 1, 10, 30, and 90 min were 57.41°, 63.43°, 73.76°, 81.47°, respectively, and the highest value obtained was 93.34°. In addition, the average roughness and work function of the ITO were measured using atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As the deposition time of CH3SAM on the ITO substrates increased, it was evident that the former was well aligned with the latter, improving surface modification. The work function of CH3SAM, modified on the ITO substrates, improved by approximately 0.11 eV from 5.05–5.16 eV. The introduction of CH3SAM to the ITO revealed the ease of adjustment of the characteristics of ITO substrates.


Author(s):  
J. Barriga ◽  
B. Ferna´ndez ◽  
E. Abad ◽  
B. Coto

Despite progresses achieved in the technology of MEMS, the tribological problem continues being an unresolved matter. Wear and stick-slip phenomena are many times the origin of failure of these devices. The application of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) in liquid phase seems to be a solution to this problems. SAMs of octadecyltrichlorosilane (CH3(CH2)17SiCl3, OTS) were attached to Si(100) oxidized in liquid phase. Contact angle measurements were used for characterizing the grade of hydrophobicity. The topography of the coating was obtained with an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) in semicontact mode. The images showed the presence of particles related to the polymerization of the precursor molecule during the formation process of the SAMs. Creating the film of lubricant in vapour phase would avoid this undesirable effect. Tribological tests were carried out with a microtribometer in linear reciprocating movement with a ball of 2 mm of diameter (100Cr6 and Si3N4) and load of some milinewtons. Results were compared with those obtained for silicon oxidized without any coating. The coefficient of friction (COF) and wear (substrate and ball) were studied under different test conditions.


Sensors ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 502
Author(s):  
Roberta Jacoby Cureau ◽  
Ilaria Pigliautile ◽  
Anna Laura Pisello

The rapid urbanization process brings consequences to urban environments, such poor air quality and the urban heat island issues. Due to these effects, environmental monitoring is gaining attention with the aim of identifying local risks and improving cities’ liveability and resilience. However, these environments are very heterogeneous, and high-spatial-resolution data are needed to identify the intra-urban variations of physical parameters. Recently, wearable sensing techniques have been used to perform microscale monitoring, but they usually focus on one environmental physics domain. This paper presents a new wearable system developed to monitor key multidomain parameters related to the air quality, thermal, and visual domains, on a hyperlocal scale from a pedestrian’s perspective. The system consisted of a set of sensors connected to a control unit settled on a backpack and could be connected via Wi-Fi to any portable equipment. The device was prototyped to guarantee the easy sensors maintenance, and a user-friendly dashboard facilitated a real-time monitoring overview. Several tests were conducted to confirm the reliability of the sensors. The new device will allow comprehensive environmental monitoring and multidomain comfort investigations to be carried out, which can support urban planners to face the negative effects of urbanization and to crowd data sourcing in smart cities.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 3171
Author(s):  
AbdolAli Moghaddasi ◽  
Patrik Sobolčiak ◽  
Anton Popelka ◽  
Igor Krupa

Purpose: Copolyamide 6,10 (coPA) electrospun mats were covered with multilayered (ML) and single-layered (SL) MXene (Ti3C2Tx) as a membrane for the separation of water/vegetable oil emulsions. Methods: Prepared membranes were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), profilometry, the contact angle measurements of various liquids in air, and the underwater contact angle of vegetable oil. The separation efficiency was evaluated by measuring the UV transmittance of stock solutions compared to the UV transmittance of the filtrate. Results: The MXene coating onto coPA mats led to changes in the permeability, hydrophilicity, and roughness of the membranes and enhanced the separation efficiency of the water/vegetable oil emulsions containing 10, 100, and 1000 ppm of sunflower vegetable oil. It was found that membranes were highly oleophobic (>124°) under water, unlike in air, where the membranes showed high oleophobicity (<5°). The separation efficiency of water/oil emulsions for both types of covered membranes reached over 99%, with a surface coverage of 3.2 mg/cm2 Ti3C2Tx (for ML-Ti3C2Tx) and 2.9 mg/cm2 (for SL-Ti3C2Tx). Conclusions: The separation efficiency was greater than 98% for membranes covered with 2.65 mg/cm2 of ML-Ti3C2Tx, whereas the separation efficiency for membranes containing 1.89 and 0.77 mg/cm2 was less than 90% for all studied emulsion concentrations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (35) ◽  
pp. 15000-15009
Author(s):  
Zahra Mehrani ◽  
Zahra Karimpour ◽  
Homeira Ebrahimzadeh

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/citric acid (CA)/Au NPs electrospun nanofibers was synthesized and applied as a green and efficient sorbent to extract and preconcentrate Pb2+ and Cu2+ from water sources, rice samples and cosmetics before FAAS.


RSC Advances ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (32) ◽  
pp. 18146-18152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Zhang ◽  
Zhifeng Yi ◽  
Lianmei Wei ◽  
Lingxue Kong ◽  
Lijun Wang

A new concept of citric acid-stimulus P fertiliser via incorporation of ferric phosphate as P source in polyvinyl alcohol films.


Author(s):  
N. Satyanarayana ◽  
S. K. Sinha

The primary objective of the present study is to investigate the influence of the molecular structure (linear or with bulky side groups) of polymer films (of few nanometers thickness) covalently attached to Si surface on tribological properties. PE (polyethylene) and PS (Polystyrene) were selected to test the objective where PE has simple linear molecular structure while PS also has linear molecular structure but contains bulky benzene groups located at the side of the linear chain. PE and PS contains maleic anhydride groups and are chemisorbed onto the APTMS (3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane) modified Si surface. AFM (atomic force microscopy), XPS (X-ray photoelectron microscopy) and water contact angle measurements are used to identify and characterize the polymer films. A micro-tribometer is used to identify the tribological properties in a sliding test using 4 mm diameter Si3N4 ball as the counterface. PE film has shown very low coefficient of friction and high wear durability when compared to PS film and moreover PS film did not show any improvement in the tribological properties when compared to bare Si surface. This study proves that even in film form polymer with linear molecular structure without the bulky side groups show good tribological properties and hence such polymers can be used as thin-films for reducing friction and wear of substrates, Si or other materials. The chemisorbed PE film may be able to find applications in micro-components made from Si surface as anti-stiction and anti-wear coating.


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