4D Printing based piezoelectric composite for medical applications

Additive manufacturing (AM), otherwise known as three‐dimensional (3D) printing, is driving major innovations in many areas, such as engineering, manufacturing, art, education, and medicine. Although a considerable amount of progress has been made in this field, additional research work is required to overcome various remaining challenges. Recently, one of the actively researched areas lies in the AM of smart materials and structures. Electroactive materials incorporated in 3D printing have given birth to 4D printing, where 3D printed structures can perform as actuating and/or sensing systems, making it possible to deliver electrical signals under external mechanical stimuli and vice versa. In this paper, we present a lightweight, low cost piezoelectric material based on the dispersion of inorganic ferroelectric submicron particles in a polymer matrix. We report on how the proposed material is compatible with the AM process. Finally, we discuss its potential applications for healthcare, especially in smart implants prostheses. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 109–115     

Relationship of nanostructure and thermo-chemical response/thermal ablation of carbon aerogels

In this work, the interfacial mass balance relations combined with the non-parametric kinetic (NPK) analysis results were used for evaluating the thermo-chemical ablation process and oxidation mechanism of carbon aerogels with various porous structure. It was found that the two-parameter model of Nomen–Sempereis was able to describe the kinetics of the oxidation reaction and to reveal the structure-dependent contribution of two main processes with chemical and physical nature. The porosity of the carbon aerogel, rather than the other microstructural features, was realized more effective on the rate of ablation.     

Homogenization of Periodically Heterogeneous Thin Beams

Consider an elastic thin three-dimensional body made of a periodic distribution of elastic inclusions. When both the thickness of the beam and the size of the heterogeneities tend simultaneously to zero the authors obtain three different one-dimensional models of beam depending upon the limit of the ratio of these two small parameters.     

Order-Stability in Complex Biological,Social, and AI-Systems from Quantum Information Theory

This paper is our attempt, on the basis of physical theory, to bring more clarification on the question “What is life?” formulated in the well-known book of Schrödinger in 1944. According to Schrödinger, the main distinguishing feature of a biosystem’s functioning is the ability to preserve its order structure or, in mathematical terms, to prevent increasing of entropy. However, Schrödinger’s analysis shows that the classical theory is not able to adequately describe the order-stability in a biosystem. Schrödinger also appealed to the ambiguous notion of negative entropy. We apply quantum theory. As is well-known, behaviour of the quantum von Neumann entropy crucially differs from behaviour of classical entropy. We consider a complex biosystem S composed of many subsystems, say proteins, cells, or neural networks in the brain, that is, S=(Si). We study the following problem: whether the compound system S can maintain “global order” in the situation of an increase of local disorder and if S can preserve the low entropy while other Si increase their entropies (may be essentially). We show that the entropy of a system as a whole can be constant, while the entropies of its parts rising. For classical systems, this is impossible, because the entropy of S cannot be less than the entropy of its subsystem Si. And if a subsystems’s entropy increases, then a system’s entropy should also increase, by at least the same amount. However, within the quantum information theory, the answer is positive. The significant role is played by the entanglement of a subsystems’ states. In the absence of entanglement, the increasing of local disorder implies an increasing disorder in the compound system S (as in the classical regime). In this note, we proceed within a quantum-like approach to mathematical modeling of information processing by biosystems—respecting the quantum laws need not be based on genuine quantum physical processes in biosystems. Recently, such modeling found numerous applications in molecular biology, genetics, evolution theory, cognition, psychology and decision making. The quantum-like model of order stability can be applied not only in biology, but also in social science and artificial intelligence.     

Size,surface charge and flexibility of vinegar-baked Radix Bupleuri polysaccharide affecting the immune response

Remarkably, nanomaterials can interact with the cells of immune system and either enhance or inhibit its function in many ways. Unfortunately, such valuable information has been overlooked in studies of polysaccharide immune activity. This study isolated a nano-polysaccharide from vinegar-baked Radix Bupleuri by membrane separation system, DEAE-52 and Sephadex-G200. The physicochemical characterization and immunoregulatory activity were studied through DLS, Congo red, Scanning Electron Microscope, UV–Vis, HPGPC, FT-IR, Methylation, NMR, MTT, neutral red and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Results showed that VBCP2.5 was an acidic polysaccharide with a molecular weight of 674 kDa. Its monosaccharides composed of mannose, rhamnose, galacturonic acid, glucose, galactose and arabinose at a molar ratio of 1.72: 9.59: 57.63: 5.37: 6.71: 18.99. VBCP2.5 possessed micelle forming ability at 52.574 µg/mL and flexible chain conformation, as well as with a small size distribution ～ 84.99 nm and positive charge in stimulated blood fluid and different from that in deionized water. The microtopography was characterized by irregular lamellar, dendritic, cylindrical or spherical aggregates, with folds and cracks on the surface. Structure analyses showed that VBCP2.5 characterized by high proportion of 1,4 linked-α-D-GalpA and a small fraction of RG-I, some other glycosidic linkages included 1,5 linked-α-L-Araf, 1,3,5 linked-α-L-Araf, 1,3,4 linked-Galp, 1,4,6 linked-Manp, t-α-L-Araf, t-β-D-Glcp and t-α-D-Galp were also comprised. VBCP2.5 exhibited immunomodulatory potential which included the promotion of phagocytosis, the release of NO and the secretion of TNF-α and IL-6 of RAW264.7 cells. The possible activation of macrophages by VBCP2.5 may be mediated through endocytosis pathway. Small size, positive charge, shape and flexible conformation may accelerate this process. The information gathered here could lead to new platform for comprehensive understand included primary structure, properties of nanoscale, and correlation with immunoregulation of polysaccharides.     

Design of Functional Carbon Composite Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage

The carbon composite materials have been a research hotspot in the fields of catalysis, energy conversion and so on, because of their features of large structure and morphology variety, good chemical and electrochemical stability, and high electronic conductivity, large specific surface area and rich active sites. This paper summarizes some research progress of carbon composite materials, including assembly methodologies, their structure regulation, properties, and related applications. Moreover, the current challenges and the prospects of these materials are also discussed.     

The self-assemblies of a newly designed star-shaped molecule end-capped with bromine atoms studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

A new star-shaped molecule StOF-Br_3 containing oligofluorenes and halogen atoms(Bromine) has been synthesized and studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy(STM) at the highly oriented pyrolytic graphite(HOPG) surface.We have obtained the high-resolution self-assembled STM images,from which the highly ordered and closely packed non-porous arrangements of the StOF-Br_3 molecular selfassemblies at the heptanoic acid/HOPG surface could be observed.The molecular models and selfassembled StOF-Br_3 architectures have been given in the following text.Besides,we have also figured out the surface free energy by the density functional theory(DFT) calculation,which proved that the halogen...halogen interaction was strong enough to stabilize the ordered molecular self-assemblies.This work verifies the existence of bromine...bromine interactions,and meanwhile provides a kind of effective approach for quickly building ordered molecular nanoarchitectures with large areas and different geometries.     

The recent progress of functionally graded CNT reinforced composites and structures

In the last decade,the functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composites(FG-CNTRCs)have attracted considerable interest due to their excellent mechanical properties,and the structures made of FG-CNTRCs have found broad potential applications in aerospace,civil and ocean engineering,automotive industry,and smart structures.Here we review the literature regarding the mechanical analysis of bulk CNTR nanocomposites and FG-CNTRC structures,aiming to provide a clear picture of the mechanical modeling and properties of FG-CNTRCs as well as their composite structures.The review is organized as follows:(1)a brief introduction to the functionally graded materials(FGM),CNTRCs and FG-CNTRCs;(2)a literature review of the mechanical modeling methodologies and properties of bulk CNTRCs;(3)a detailed discussion on the mechanical behaviors of FG-CNTRCs;and(4)conclusions together with a suggestion of future research trends.     

TiC-MgO composite: an X-ray transparent and machinable heating element in a multi-anvil high pressure apparatus

ABSTRACT

TiC-MgO composite was developed as a heating element for X-ray study in the multi-anvil high pressure apparatus. We synthesized TiC-MgO blocks (50–70 wt.% of TiC) by compression in a cold isostatic press followed by baking in a gas flow furnace. Heaters of tubular shape were manufactured from the synthesized blocks either by lathe or numerically controlled milling machine. The so-produced heating elements have been proved to generate temperatures up to 2250?K at 10?GPa, condition where classical graphite heaters are not suitable anymore due to graphite-diamond transition. These new heaters have been successfully used for in situ X-ray radiography and diffraction measurements on liquid Fe alloys, exploiting excellent X-ray transparency.