Effect of thermal cycling on micro-tensile bond strength of composite restorations bonded with multimode adhesive

Objective: The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effect of thermal cycling on the micro-tensile bond strength (Mtbs) of multimode adhesive agents. Materials and methods: Eight freshly extracted caries-free human third molars were used. The flat dentin surfaces were prepared and polished with 600-grit SiC abrasive paper for standard smear layer formation. The teeth were restored using Single Bond Universal Adhesive [(total etch (G1, G2)/self etch (G3, G4)]?+?Filtek Z550 and All-Bond Universal Adhesive [(total etch (G5, G6)/self etch (G7, G8)]?+?Aelite all-purpose. The specimens in groups G1, G3, G5, and G7 were subjected to thermal cycling (1000 cycles at 5–55 °C, for a 30?s dwell time), while the specimens in other groups were not exposed to an aging procedure. The Mtbs test was determined in all procedures. Data were submitted to three-way ANOVA and post hoc tests. The significance level was set at?=?0.05. Results: Group five was highly affected by the thermal cycling following the total etch procedure, while group one was not significantly affected. Group seven was highly affected by thermal cycling, while group three was not significantly affected after the self etch procedure. Group eight exhibited a higher mean Mtbs value after the thermal cycling procedure. Conclusion: The bond strength of multimode (universal) adhesives was found to be material dependent. The total etch procedure showed a higher Mtbs value than the self etch procedure.     

Investigation of water absorption performance of polyester-woven fabrics coated with super absorbent polymer

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) constitute a special class of polymers widely used in various fields, especially in the hygiene and healthcare sectors. This study investigates the feasibility of achieving high water absorption capacity surfaces by coating powdered SAP using conventional coating methods onto textile surfaces. For this purpose, water-based coating pastes containing micronized SAP powder based on acrylamide/acrylic acid copolymer were coated onto polyester (PES)-woven fabric surfaces using a knife-over-roll coating technique. As the working parameters, the pH value of the coating paste, the coating thickness (the distance between the cloth and the knife), the drying/fixing temperature and time, the SAP concentration, and the water absorption capacity according to time were investigated. The results were evaluated by applying the coating thickness, the amount of coating material transferred to the fabric on the SAP-coated samples, water absorbing capacity, and centrifugal water retention tests. The obtained results have demonstrated that textile surfaces with high water absorption capacity (on average 200%–350%) can be achieved by coating hydrophobic fabric surfaces, such as PES, with SAP under suitable conditions.     

Electrochemical,continuous-flow determination of p-benzoquinone on a gold nanoparticles poly(propylene-co-imidazole) modified gold electrode

A novel continuous flow biosensor based on gold nanoparticles and poly(propylene-co-imidazole) was developed for the online determination of p-benzoquinone. The amperometric response was measured as a function of p-benzoquinone concentration at an applied potential of ?50 mV. The hydrogen peroxide concentration was optimized and fixed at 1 mM in samples. The mass transfer resistance of the copolymer film was minimized, and the flow cell was regenerated quickly at 1 mL/min. The resulting device provided good analytical performance based on a linear dynamic range from 5–100 µM, a short response time of 3 s, a detection limit of 3.3 µM, excellent repeatability with a relative standard deviation of 0.82%, long-term stability of 95% after four weeks, and an accuracy of 105%. The gold nanoparticles enhanced the electron transfer rate on the electrode. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant was 4 mM, showing that the enzyme retained catalytic specificity and provided high activity for p-benzoquinone.     

Enzymatic production of Xylooligosaccharide from selected agricultural wastes

Four different agricultural wastes, namely tobacco stalk (TS), cotton stalk (CS), sunflower stalk (SS) and wheat straw (WS) were tested for the production of Xylooligosaccharide (XO). XO production was performed by enzymatic hydrolysis of xylans which were obtained by alkali extraction from the agricultural wastes. Depending on the source, it was found that these four agricultural wastes contained different amount of xylan, cellulose and lignin and the xylan obtained from these source contained different amount of sugar and uronic acid. The highest amount of arabinose was in xylan from WS while the other xylans mainly had xylose and small amount of glucose. Different xylanase preparations were evaluated for production XO from these xylan sources. Aspergillus niger xylanase produced lower amount of XO from wheat straw xylan (WSX) than cotton stalk xylan (CSX), sun flower xylan (SSX) and tobacco stalk xylan (TSX) while Trichoderma longibrachiatum xylanase hydrolyzed highly branched WSX better. The HPLC analysis of the hydrolysis products indicated that depending on structure and composition of xylan, A. niger xylanase produced less amount of xylose than T. longibrachiatum xylanase, and the hyrolysis product of A. niger xylanase contained different amount of oligosaccharides (X2 > X3 > X4 > X5 > X6, >X6). Regardless of the structural differences of the xylan types presented in this paper, all xylans generated XO with different degree of polymerization (DP), but the DP of XO depended on the enzyme specificity and the structure of substrate.     

Electrochemical determination of urea using a gold nanoparticle-copolymer coated-enzyme modified gold electrode

A new amperometric urea biosensor based on gold nanoparticle embedded poly(propylene-co-imidazole) was developed for the determination of urea. The urease adsorbed on the polymeric film catalyzed the hydrolysis of urea to ammonium and bicarbonate ions and the ammonium was then electrooxidized on the gold electrode with the aid of gold nanoparticles at +0.2?V versus Ag/AgCl using differential pulse voltammetry. The biosensor provided a linear current response to urea concentration from 0.1 to 30?mM, a detection limit of 36?µM, a relative standard deviation of 2.43% (n?=?18), and excellent storage stability, as the current decrease was only 3% after 75 days. The operation of the biosensor was evaluated by the analysis of municipal sewage wastewater collected from the inlet pipe of the treatment plant of Zonguldak City in Turkey. The effects of possible interferants were also characterized.     

A modified shifting bottleneck heuristic for the reentrant job shop scheduling problem with makespan minimization

This paper proposes a modified shifting bottleneck heuristic (MSBH) for the reentrant job shop scheduling problem (RJSSP) with makespan minimization objective. Recently, the reentrant job shop has come into prominence as a new type of manufacturing shop. The principle characteristic of a reentrant job shop is that a job may visit certain machines more than once during the process flow, whereas in the classic job shop, each job visits a machine only once. The shifting bottleneck heuristic (SBH) is one of the most successful heuristic approaches for the classical job shop scheduling problem, which decomposes the problem into a number of single-machine subproblems. This paper adapts the SBH for the RJSSP and proposes a new sequencing heuristic for the single-machine maximum lateness subproblem considering the reentrant jobs in order to handle large-size RJSSPs. It also uses a subproblem criticality measure that further shortens the implementation time. The proposed MSBH is tested by using instances up to 20 machines and 100 jobs, and it is illustrated that good quality solutions can be obtained in reasonable computational times. A real-life application of the MSBH is also given as a case study to evaluate its performance.     

An investigation of lithium ion conductivity of copolymers based on P(AMPS-co-PEGMA)

In this work, a series of novel lithium ion-conducting copolymer electrolytes based on 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) and poly(ethyleneglycol) methacrylate (PEGMA) were produced and characterized. The copolymers were synthesized by free-radical polymerization of the corresponding monomers with three different feed ratios to form P(AMPS-co-PEGMA)-based electrolytes. After the polymerization, AMPS units of the copolymers were lithiated via ion exchange. The characterization of the electrolytes was done by ¹H-NMR, FTIR, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and impedance analyzer. The copolymers were thermal stable approximately to 200 °C. Single T_g transitions in DSC curves verified the homogeneity as well as amorphous characteristics. SEM further confirmed the homogeneity of the electrolytes. The lithium ion conductivity of these new polymer electrolytes was studied by impedance dielectric impedance analyzer and the effect of PEGMA contents onto the ionic conductivity of these copolymer electrolytes were investigated. It was observed that the temperature dependence of ionic conductivity was interpreted over Vogel Tammann Fulcher model. The Li ion conductivity increased by PEGMA content and S3 has maximum conductivity of 3 × 10⁻³ mS cm⁻¹ at 100 °C. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47798.     

Shrinkage compensation approach proposed for ABS material in FDM process

Dimensional accuracy of parts manufactured by Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) greatly suffers from the shrinkage problems of the available polymer materials. This paper proposes a constructive idea for resolving the shrinkage issues and explains how shrinkage could be managed by interior geometry of the artifacts fabricated on desktop 3D printers. The main principle for preventing the deterioration on dimensional accuracy of the holes/slots is to utilize the auxiliary lines located from the hole’s perimeter to the outer boundaries of the artifact. Thus, the shrinkage of these auxiliary line segments simply helps to pull the original hole backward, acting against the predicted contraction. In this paper, the proposed approach will be examined using a finite element analysis tool to predict the shrinkage behavior of the fabricated samples along with necessary measurements taken on the Coordinate Measuring Machine. Additionally, an analytical framework for modeling the shrinkage behavior of ABS is to be elaborated. The coherence of the simulations and the measurements are to be analyzed regarding the effect of the geometry and material color on the shrinkage behavior. The discussion involves the improvement on the dimensional accuracy of 3D printed features.     

Polybutylene Succinate (PBS) – Polycaprolactone (PCL) Blends Compatibilized with Poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(propylene oxide)-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO) Copolymer for Biomaterial Applications

This study reports the preparation and characterization of Polybutylene Succinate (PBS)-Polycaprolactone (PCL) melt blends (10–40 wt.% PCL) in the presence of a compatibilizer, in order to explore their potential use as a biomaterial. The thermal transitions, as well as the crystallinity of the polymer blends were analyzed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry, the thermomechanical properties were analyzed via Dynamic Mechanical Analysis and phase morphologies were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy. Degradation profiles of the blends were analyzed in PBS buffer solution at pH 7.4 at 37°C via pH measurements. Cytotoxicity of the PBS/PCL films were tested by MTS assay.