Search results for "polymer"

Optical hybrid nanocomposite sensors for selective explosive detection

2022

Durant l'última dècada, la detecció d'artefactes explosius improvisats (IEDs) tant en l'àmbit militar com civil s'ha convertit en una prioritat estratègica en la seguretat nacional a causa de la creixent amenaça terrorista. Encara que les tècniques convencionals, com la cromatografia de gasos acoblada a espectrometria de masses o la difracció de raigs X mostren notables avantatges degut a la seua elevada sensibilitat i selectivitat, una gran part d’aquestes presenten inconvenients, com per exemple processos de mesura lents, instrumentació cara, complexa i voluminosa, que limiten el mostreig en continu i en temps real. Per aquesta raó, existeix una recerca constant per trobar una plataforma …

Fibre fragment distribution in a single-fibre composite tension test

2001

Abstract Single fibre fragmentation tests are performed for brittle fibres with Weibull strength distribution and different surface treatments. The fragmentation process is modelled and closed-form expressions for break spacing distribution are obtained. The model accounts for the effect of finite fibre length on the initial fragmentation as well as for break interaction on the advanced fragmentation stage. It is assumed that the exclusion zone due to fibre–matrix interface failure and stress recovery in the fibre is linearly dependent on the applied load. This assumption is validated experimentally. The derived theoretical average fragment length dependence on applied load is used to deter…

Low-temperature thermal and plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition of metal oxide thin films

2017

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a method for thin film fabrication with atomic level precision. This thesis focuses on low-temperature thermal and plasma- enhanced ALD and presents results on thin film growth by these techniques with examples of common ALD materials: Al2O3, ZnO and TiO2. As an example of limitations of the thermal ALD the nucleation and growth of Al2O3 and ZnO films on different grades of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) are presented, showing that the initiation of the growth is strongly dependent on both the deposited material and the substrate. A potential application of the ALD ZnO films in polymer surface functionalization is demonstrated by changing in the surface wettab…

miRNome Profiling Detects miR-101-3p and miR-142-5p as Putative Blood Biomarkers of Frailty Syndrome

2022

Frailty is an aging-related pathology, defined as a state of increased vulnerability to stressors, leading to a limited capacity to meet homeostatic demands. Extracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) were proposed as potential biomarkers of various disease conditions, including age-related pathologies. The primary objective of this study was to identify blood miRNAs that could serve as potential biomarkers and candidate mechanisms of frailty. Using the Fried index, we enrolled 22 robust and 19 frail subjects. Blood and urine samples were analysed for several biochemical parameters. We observed that sTNF-R was robustly upregulated in the frail group, indicating the presence of an inflammatory state. …

A fluorescence study of the loading and time stability of doxorubicin in sodium cholate/PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymer mixed micelles

2019

Abstract Hypothesis Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DX) is one of the most powerful anticancer agents though its clinical use is impaired by severe undesired side effects. DX encapsulation in nanocarrier systems has been introduced as a mean to reduce its toxicity. Micelles of the nonionic triblock copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) (PEO-PPO-PEO), are very promising carrier systems. The positive charge of DX confines the drug to the hydrophilic corona region of the micelles. The use of mixed micelles of PEO-PPO-PEO copolymers and a negatively charged bile salt should favour the solubilization of DX in the apolar core region of the micelles. Experiments We st…

Addition of Ethylene or Hydrogen to a Main-Group Metal Cluster under Mild Conditions

2015

Reaction of the tin cluster Sn8(Arinline image)4 (Arinline image=C6H2-2,6-(C6H3-2,4,6-Me3)2) with excess ethylene or dihydrogen at 25 °C/1 atmosphere yielded two new clusters that incorporated ethylene or hydrogen. The reaction with ethylene yielded Sn4(Arinline image)4(C2H2)5 that contained five ethylene moieties bridging four aryl substituted tin atoms and one tin–tin bond. Reaction with H2 produced a cyclic tin species of formula (Sn(H)Arinline image)4, which could also be synthesized by the reaction of {(Arinline image)Sn(μ-Cl)}2 with DIBAL-H. These reactions represent the first instances of direct reactions of isolable main-group clusters with ethylene or hydrogen under mild conditions…

Trapping and Reactivity of a Molecular Aluminium Oxide Ion

2019

Aluminium oxides constitute an important class of inorganic compound that are widely exploited in the chemical industry as catalysts and catalyst supports. Due to the tendency for such systems to aggregate via Al‐O‐Al bridges, the synthesis of well‐defined, soluble, molecular models for these materials is challenging. Here we show that reactions of the potassium aluminyl complex K 2 [( NON )Al] 2 ( NON = 4,5‐bis(2,6‐diiso‐propylanilido)‐2,7‐di‐tert‐butyl‐9,9‐dimethylxanthene) with CO 2 , PhNCO and N 2 O all proceed via a common aluminium oxide intermediate. This highly reactive species can be trapped by coordination of a THF molecule as the anionic oxide complex [( NON )AlO(THF)] ‐ , which …

ETICHETTE INTELLIGENTI PER LA RILEVAZIONE VISIVA DEL DETERIORAMENTO DEI PRODOTTI ALIMENTARI

2015

Extraordinary Performance of Carbon‐Coated Anatase TiO 2 as Sodium‐Ion Anode

2015

The synthesis of in situ polymer‐functionalized anatase TiO2 particles using an anchoring block copolymer with hydroxamate as coordinating species is reported, which yields nanoparticles (≈11 nm) in multigram scale. Thermal annealing converts the polymer brushes into a uniform and homogeneous carbon coating as proven by high resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The strong impact of particle size as well as carbon coating on the electrochemical performance of anatase TiO2 is demonstrated. Downsizing the particles leads to higher reversible uptake/release of sodium cations per formula unit TiO2 (e.g., 0.72 eq. Na+ (11 nm) vs only 0.56 eq. Na+ (40 nm)) while the …

Local mechanical properties by Atomic Force Microscopy nanoindentations

2008

The analysis of mechanical properties on a nanometer scale is a useful tool for combining information concerning texture organization obtained by microscopy with the properties of individual components- Moreover, this technique promotes the understanding of the hierarchical arrangement in complex natural materials as well in the case of simpler morphologies arising from industrial processes. Atomic Force Microscopy, AFM, can bridge morphological information, obtained with outstanding resolution, to local mechanical properties. When performing an AFM nanoindentation, the rough force curve, i.e., the plot of the voltage output from the photodiode vs. the voltage applied to the piezo-scanner, …