0000000001054111
AUTHOR
Francesco P. Bonomo
Identification of microplastics using 4‐dimethylamino‐4′‐nitrostilbene solvatochromic fluorescence
In this work, we introduce the use of 4-dimethylamino-4'-nitrostilbene (DANS) fluorescent dye for applications in the detection and analysis of microplastics, an impendent source of pollution made of synthetic organic polymers with a size varying from less than 5 mm to nanometer scale. The use of this dye revealed itself as a versatile, fast and sensitive tool for readily discriminate microplastics in water environment. The experimental evidences herein presented demonstrate that DANS efficiently absorbs into a variety of polymers constituting microplastics, and its solvatochromic properties lead to a positive shift of the fluorescence emission spectrum according to the polarity of the poly…
A procedure for slicing and characterizing soft heterogeneous and irregular-shaped tissue
Abstract This paper presents a slicing technique useful to prepare precise and repeatable samples from organs which are irregularly shaped and highly heterogeneous for mechanical testing and advanced microscopy observation. The suggested technique does not seem to influence the internal microstructure and it is employed here for testing specimens cut from different region of the meniscal tissue. Fast Fourier Transform analysis is used to quantify characteristic features of the microstructure (collagen fibers orientation, pore size) after slicing prior mechanical testing. Uniaxial (relaxation) tests are performed on dog-bone meniscal samples. Stress relaxation testing results on samples cut …