0000000000084606
AUTHOR
Llúcia Monreal
Dielectric Spectroscopy of Recycled Polylactide
The effects of multiple mechanical recycling on amorphous polylactide (PLA) were simulated by means of five successive injection-grinding cycles. The influence of the induced thermo-mechanical degradation on the dielectric properties of PLA was analysed. The relaxation spectra were studied in terms of the complex dielectric permittivity (ε0 and ε00) and the dielectric loss tangent, tg(d) in the frequency range from 102 to 107 Hz over the temperature interval from 0 C to 140 C. It was possible to distinguish two relaxations zones, one at low temperatures and high frequencies (b relaxation) and another at higher temperatures and lower frequencies (a relaxation). The individual relaxations wer…
A software system to teach economics to secondary school and first year engineering students
[EN] In this paper, we present a graphical user interface which has been devised to teach the basic concepts of economics in secondary schools and first year engineering courses. The application allows students to vary certain parameters and visually observe the effect on the supply and demand curves. The system has been developed in Matlab and employed in a secondary school in Spain. The first results are presented.
Influence of substrate and temperature on the biodegradation of polyester-based materials: Polylactide and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) as model cases
[EN] The extended use of polymers from renewable resources such as aliphatic polyesters or polyhydroxyalkanoates boosted the necessity to understand their behaviour in an end-of-life scenario. Although they can be degraded in reasonable shorter times than traditional polymers, understanding the degradation mechanisms under dissimilar conditions will contribute to further developments in this field. This work aimed to study the effect of temperature and substrate in the degradation of polylactide (PLA) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBH) in a simulated laboratory scale to ascertain their contribution, separately or in combination. For this purpose, nine parallel degradat…
Noncommutative space and the low-energy physics of quasicrystals
We prove that the effective low-energy, nonlinear Schroedinger equation for a particle in the presence of a quasiperiodic potential is the potential-free, nonlinear Schroedinger equation on noncommutative space. Thus quasiperiodicity of the potential can be traded for space noncommutativity when describing the envelope wave of the initial quasiperiodic wave.
In vitro validation of biomedical polyester-based scaffolds: Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) as model-case
[EN] Monitoring and understanding the in vitro behaviour of polyester based scaffolds both comprising the study of the hydrolytic degradation and the cell seeding viability is essential to ensure the desired functionality, according to a given biomedical purpose. As a model case to compare the performance of techniques to monitor the in vitro behaviour, poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) scaffolds were chosen. The in vitro hydrolytic degradation of PLGA scaffolds was carried out in water and phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The evolution of the mass loss, the molar mass, the thermal properties and the surface morphology were monitored. The hydrolytic degradation media was correspondingly eva…