High Efficiency Poly(acrylonitrile) Electrospun Nanofiber Membranes for Airborne Nanomaterials Filtration

The potential of poly(acrylonitrile) electrospun membranes with tuneable pore size and fiber distributions were investigated for airborne fine‐particle filtration for the first time. The impact of solution concentration on final membrane properties are evaluated for the purpose of designing separation materials with higher separation efficiency. The properties of fibers and membranes are investigated systematically: the average pore distribution, as characterized by capillary flow porometry, and thermo‐mechanical properties of the mats are found to be dependent on fiber diameter and on specific electrospinning conditions. Filtration efficiency and pressure drop are calculated from measurement of penetration through the membranes using potassium chloride (KCl) aerosol particles ranging from 300 nm to 12 μm diameter. The PAN membranes exhibited separation efficiencies in the range of 73.8–99.78% and a typical quality factor 0.0224 (1 Pa^?1) for 12 wt% PAN with nanofibers having a diameter of 858 nm. Concerning air flow rate, the quality factor and filtration efficiency of the electrospun membranes at higher face velocity are much more stable than for commercial membranes. The results suggest that the structure of electrospun membranes is the best for air filtration in terms of filtration stability at high air flow rate.

     

Friction and wear of copper/lead and aluminium/tin filled polyamide coatings

The friction and wear of steel pins coated with filled polyamides and loaded against a rotating cylinder of bearing steel were tested under dry, lubricated, and abrasive contaminated conditions. The filler materials were copper/lead and aluminium/tin powders. The test results show a significant reduction in friction with the Cu/Pb filled polyamides (8 wt.% Cu, 12 wt.% Pb, and 80 wt.% PA6). The Al/Sn filled polyamides (3 wt.% Al, 2 wt.% Sn, and 95 wt.% PA6) showed the best wear resistance, accompanied by an increase in the coefficient of friction.     

Investigation of Anodic Gas Film Behavior in Hall–Heroult Cell Using Low Temperature Electrolyte

A novel one-fourth scale low temperature electrolytic model of the Hall–Heroult cell was constructed to investigate the electrolytic bubble formation, coalescence, and movement under the horizontal anode surface. The principles of geometric and dynamic similarities were applied in developing this model electrolytic cell for the first time. A 0.28 M aqueous CuSO₄ + 20 pct H₂SO₄ solution was used as the electrolyte. Analogous to the Hall–Heroult cell, copper (Cu) was deposited at the cathode and oxygen (O₂) bubbles were generated underneath the anode. The bubble generation mechanism, development, coalescence, and detachment underneath the anode were observed using a high speed camera. It was found that electrolytic bubbles were generated uniformly under the entire anode surface and grew through gas diffusion and coalescence. With increasing current density (CD) and anode inclination angle to the horizontal, bubble velocity increased underneath the anode surface. Moreover, the bubble layer thickness and bubble sizes decreased with an increase in anode inclination angle. Bubble coverage under the anode also decreased with increasing anode inclination angle, but was found to be insensitive to the change in CD. Finally, the calculated bubble resistance was found to decrease with increasing anode angle.     

Determination of very low concentrations of polyacrylamide and polyethyleneoxide flocculants by nephelometry

A method is described for the analytical determination of low concentrations of polyacrylamide or polyethyleneoxide flocculants in water, in the range 0–10 parts/10⁶. It depends on measuring the turbidity produced by mixing the polymer solution with a dilute solution of tannic acid in the presence of 1 m NaCl. With a sensitive nephelometer, as little as 0.1 parts/10⁶ of flocculant can be detected.     

A novel approach via combination of electrospinning and FDM for tri-leaflet heart valve scaffold fabrication

In this paper, a novel combination method of electrospinning and rapid prototyping (RP) fused deposition modeling (FDM) is proposed for the fabrication of a tissue engineering heart valve (TEHV) scaffold. The scaffold preparation consisted of two steps: tri-leaflet scaffold fabrication and heart valve ring fabrication. With the purpose of mimicking the anisotropic mechanical properties of the natural heart valve leaflet, electrospun thermoplastic polyurethane (ES-TPU) was introduced as the tri-leaflet scaffold material. ES-TPU scaffolds can be fabricated to have a well-aligned fiber network, which is important for applications involving mechanically anisotropic soft tissues. We developed ES-TPU scaffolds as heart valve leaflet materials under variable speed conditions and measured fiber alignment by fast Fourier transform (FFT). By using FFT to assign relative alignment values to an electrospun matrix, it is possible to systematically evaluate how different processing variables affect the structure and material properties of a scaffold. TPU was suspended at certain concentrations and electrospun from 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol onto rotating mandrels (200―3000 rpm). The scaffold morphological property and mechanical anisotropic property are discussed in the paper as a function of fiber diameter and mandrel RPM. The induction of varying degrees of anisotropy imparted distinctive material properties to the electrospun scaffolds. A dynamic optimum design of the heart valve ring graft was constructed by FDM. Fabrication of a 3D heart valve ring was constructed using pro-engineer based on optimum hemodynamic analysis and was converted to an STL file format. The model was then created from PCL which was sewed and glued with electrospun nanofibrous leaflets. This proposed method was proven as a promising fabrication process in fabricating a specially designed graft with the correct physical and mechanical properties.     

In vitro evaluation of electrospun gelatin–glutaraldehyde nanofibers

The gelatin–glutaraldehyde (gelatin–GA) nanofibers were electrospun in order to overcome the defects of ex-situ crosslinking process such as complex process, destruction of fiber morphology and decrease of porosity. The morphological structure, porosity, thermal property, moisture absorption and moisture retention performance, hydrolytic resistance, mechanical property and biocompatibility of nanofiber scaffolds were tested and characterized. The gelatin–GA nanofiber has nice uniform diameter and more than 80% porosity. The hydrolytic resistance and mechanical property of the gelatin–GA nanofiber scaffolds are greatly improved compared with that of gelatin nanofibers. The contact angle, moisture absorption, hydrolysis resistance, thermal resistance and mechanical property of gelatin–GA nanofiber scaffolds could be adjustable by varying the gelatin solution concentration and GA content. The gelatin–GA nanofibers had excellent properties, which are expected to be an ideal scaffold for biomedical and tissue engineering applications.     

In-vitro evaluation of sustained-release dyphylline tablets

Dyphylline tablets were prepared by direct compression of mixtures of the drug, emcompress and different ratios of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) or cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP). Physical properties of the prepared tablets and the drug release in 0.1 N HC1 and phosphate buffer, pH 7.4 were investigated.

All tablets were found to satisfy the USP requirements regarding content, weight uniformity and friability. Hardness was greatly enhanced and thickness was slightly increased by increasing the polymer ratio in tablet formulations. Disintegration time of the dyphylline tablets was delayed by the presence of either HPMC or CAP and there was a direct relationship between the polymer ratio and the disintegration time. Considerable retardation in the rate and extent of drug release from the prepared tablets in both dissolution liquids was observed. As the polymer ratio increased in the tablet formulations, the drug release was significantly inhibited.     

A soft tissue adhesive based on aldehyde-sodium alginate and amino-carboxymethyl chitosan preparation through the Schiff reaction

Sodium alginate and carboxymethyl chitosan have been extensively applied in tissue engineering and other relative fields due to their low price and excellent biocompatibility. In this paper, we oxidized sodium alginate with sodium periodate to convert 1,2-hydroxyl groups into aldehyde groups to get aldehyde-sodium alginate (ASA). Carboxymethyl chitosan was modified with ethylenediamine (ED) in the presence of water-soluble N-(3-Dimethylaminopropyl)-N′-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) to introduce additional amino groups to get amino-carboxymethyl chitosan (A-CS). Upon mixing the A-SA and A-CS aqueous solutions together, a gel rapidly formed based on the Schiff’s base reaction between aldehyde groups in A-SA and amino groups in A-CS. FTIR analysis confirmed the characteristic peak of Schiff’s base group in the hydrogel. It was confirmed that the gelation time be dependent on the aldehyde group content in A-SA and amino group content in A-CS. The fasted hydrogel formation takes place within 10 min. The data of bonding strength and cytotoxicity measurement also showed that the hydrogel had good adhesion and biocompatibility. All these results support that this gel has the potential as soft tissue adhesive.     

Graphene/polypropylene nanocomposites with improved thermal and mechanical properties

Small amount of large surface area graphene (G) is expected to significantly alter functional properties of polymers. The property enhancement is a function of degree of exfoliation and dispersion of G as well as its compatibility with base polymer. However, nonpolar nature of polyolefins such as polypropylene (PP) restricts homogeneous dispersion of G, leading to significant agglomeration and properties reduction. In this work, two compatibilizers, poly (ethylene-co-butyl acrylate) (EBA) (new compatibilizer) and PP-grafted-maleic anhydride (MA-PP) (conventional compatibilizer) were compared to enhance the dispersion efficacy of G in PP. The EBA-compatibilized nanocomposites exhibited 44% increase in the Young's modulus compared to 32% increment in MA-PP-compatibilized nanocomposites. Higher elongation at break for EBA-compatibilized nanocomposites is attributed to lower degree of crystallinity in these nanocomposites. On the other hand, EBA-compatibilized nanocomposites showed significantly improved thermal stability compared to MA-PP-compatibilized nanocomposites. The results indicate that EBA may act as a potential compatibilizer for G/PP nanocomposites.