Three-dimensional printing of biocompatible scaffolds for tissue engineered constructs

The formation of porous matrix structures (scaffolds) from biocompatible polymers and their composites with finely dispersed hydroxyapatite via air pressure–aided 3D printing and digital light processing (DLP) is studied. A triblock copolymer (polyethylene glycol/poly-ε-caprolactone/polyethylene glycol) and polyethylene glycol diacrylate served as raw polymer materials. The internal structure and surface morphology of the resulting scaffolds and the correspondence of their architectonics to the initial 3D virtual models are analyzed by means of optical and scanning electron microscopy.     

Phenol assisted deaggregation of polyaniline chains: simple route to high quality polyaniline film

High conducting polyaniline films were readily prepared by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization/deposition of aniline in the presence of a very small amount of organic additive such as phenol. The conductivity of a thin ( approximately 150 nm) polyaniline film synthesized in the presence of 0.01 wt % of phenol ( r-PANI) is an order of magnitude higher (as well as better conducting homogeneity) than that of a film (PANI) obtained from the conventional method without an additive. r-PANI also has better adhesion and electrochemical stability/reversibility, more transparency in the visible-light region, and faster/easier doping/dedoping response compared to PANI. The function of phenol molecule is to avoid the formation of the inter- and/or intrachain hydrogen bonding during the growth of the polyaniline chains. The deaggregation/reducing intrachain hydrogen bonding of polyaniline chains by phenol molecules was revealed with IR, SAXS, and SEM data. All these data supported that phenol does assist the deaggregation of polyaniline chains during the growth of polymer chains or nanorods.     

Stable second‐order nonlinear optical poly(amide–imide)/inorganic materials via simultaneous sequential self‐repetitive reaction and sol–gel process

A series of thermally stable organic/inorganic second‐order nonlinear optical (NLO) composites via sequential self‐repetitive reaction (SSRR) and sol–gel process has been developed. This SSRR is based on carbodiimide (CDI) chemistry. The difunctional azo chromophores (2,4‐diamino‐4′‐(4‐ nitrophenyl‐diazenyl)azobenzene (DNDA)) was reacted with excessive amount of 4, 4′‐methylene‐ diphenylisocyanate (MDI) to form poly‐CDI, and subsequently trimellitic anhydride (TMA) was added to obtain poly(N‐acylurea). The organic/inorganic composites containing prepolymer of phenyltriethoxysilane (PTEOS) and poly(N‐acylurea) in different weight ratios (10:90, 30:70, 50:50, 70:30, 90:10 wt%) were prepared, respectively. The moderate glass transition temperature (T_g) characteristic of the poly(N‐acylurea) allows the NLO‐active polymer to achieve high poling efficiency. After in situ poling and curing process, the T_gs of the composites were elevated, and higher than that of the pristine poly(amide–imide) sample. Electro‐optical (EO) coefficients (r₃₃) of about 5.5 ～ 18.0 pm/V at 830 nm were obtained. Excellent temporal stability at 100°C, and waveguide characteristics (3.1–4.2 dB/cm at 830 nm) were also obtained for these composites. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bifunctional Ion‐Selective Electrode Based on C60‐Cryptand 22 for Silver and Iodine Ions

Fullerence C60‐cryptand 22 was prepared and successfully applied as the electric carrier in the PVC electrode membrane of a bifunctional ion‐selective electrode for cations, e.g., Ag⁺ ions as well as anions, e.g., I^? ions. The bifunctional ion‐selective electrode based on C60‐cryptand 22 can be applied as a Silver (Ag⁺) ion selective electrode with an internal electrode solution of 10^?3 M AgNO₃ in water (pH = 6.3), or as an Iodide (I^?) ion selective electrode with an acidic internal electrode solution of 10^?4 M KI_(aq) (pH = 2) in which the cryptand 22 is protonated, and the C60‐cryptand 22 is changed to C60‐Cryptand22–H⁺ and becomes an anionic electro‐carrier to absorb the I^? ion. The Ag⁺ ion selective electrode based on C60‐cryptand 22 gave a linear response with a near‐Nernstian slope (59.5 mV decade^?1) within the concentration range 10^?1‐10^?3 M Ag⁺_(aq). The Ag⁺ ion electrode exhibited comparatively good selectivity for silver ions, over other transition‐metal ions, alkali and alkaline earth metal ions. The Ag⁺ ion selective electrode with good stability and reproducibility was successfully used for the titration of Ag⁺_(aq) with Cl^? ions. The Iodide (I^?) Ion selective electrode based on protonated C60–cryptand22‐H⁺ also showed a linear response with a nearly Nernstian slope (58.5 mV decade^?1) within 10^?1 ‐ 10^?3 M I^? _(aq) and exhibited good selectivity for I^? ions and had small selectivity coefficients (10^?2–10^?3) for most of other anions, e.g., F^? , OH^?, CH₃COO^?, SO₄^2?, CO₃^2?, CrO₄^2?, Cr₂O₇^2? and PO₄^3? ions.     

(4+2) Cycloaddition to tricarbonyl[(1-4-η)-2-methoxy-5-methylene-cyclohexa-1,3-diene]iron for the rapid construction of a spiro[5.5]undecane system

Diels-Alder reactions of tricarbonyl[(1-4-η)-2-methoxy-5-methylene-cyclohexa-1,3-diene]iron 1 with 1,2,4,5-tetrazine-3,6-disubstituted derivatives 2a,b,d and 2,3,4,5-tetrabromothiophene-1,1-dioxide 5 are reported. The (4+2) cycloaddition reactions took place exclusively with highly electron deficient dienes to form spiro[5.5]undecane system in good yield. The more electron rich nature of the 1,2,4,5-tetrazine-3,6-disubstituted derivatives 2b did not react. The reaction also took place stereospecifically exo to the Fe(CO)₃ moiety.     

Thermal degradation behaviour and kinetic analysis of unsaturated polyester-based composites and IPNs by conventional and modulated thermogravimetric analysis

The thermal degradation behaviour of epoxy/unsaturated polyester based polymer interpenetrating networks (IPNs), and unsaturated polyester containing various flame-retardants have been investigated by TGA and Py/GC/MS. The kinetic parameters of various polymers were analysed by conventional and modulated thermogravimetric analysis (MTGA) methods. The activation energies of degradation were calculated by the Coats-Redfern and MTGA methods, respectively. The results of both conventional and MTGA analyses reveal that the decomposition of IPNs consists of two non-interfering decomposition processes for epoxy polymer and cured unsaturated polyester, respectively. For the flame-retardant containing unsaturated polyesters, ammonium polyphosphate (APP) played an important role in the second-step of the pyrolysis reaction of APP-containing samples. It is important to note that the possibilities of reaction order for these pyrolysis processes are significantly distinguishable by Coats-Redfern method. Furthermore, the activation energies for various samples calculated by MTGA method are on average larger than those calculated from the Coats-Redfern method. The results also reveal that when either the flame-retardant or the epoxy was added to the unsaturated polyester, the heat resistance of the unsaturated polyester was enhanced.     

Null‐field approach for Laplace problems with circular boundaries using degenerate kernels

In this article, a semi‐analytical method for solving the Laplace problems with circular boundaries using the null‐field integral equation is proposed. The main gain of using the degenerate kernels is to avoid calculating the principal values. To fully utilize the geometry of circular boundary, degenerate kernels for the fundamental solution and Fourier series for boundary densities are incorporated into the null‐field integral equation. An adaptive observer system is considered to fully employ the property of degenerate kernels in the polar coordinates. A linear algebraic system is obtained without boundary discretization. By matching the boundary condition, the unknown coefficients can be determined. The present method can be seen as one kind of semianalytical approaches since error only attributes to the truncated Fourier series. For the eccentric case, vector decomposition technique for the normal and tangential directions is carefully considered in implementing the hypersingular equation in mathematical essence although we transform it to summability to divergent series. The five advantages, well‐posed linear algebraic system, principal value free, elimination of boundary‐layer effect, exponential convergence, and mesh free, are achieved. Several examples involving infinite, half‐plane, and bounded domains with circular boundaries are given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

Analysis of using femtosecond laser scanning system to impurity-induced disordering of InGaAsP quantum wells

This study is the first to demonstrate the selectivity quantum well intermixing process by using a femtosecond laser scanning-induced disordering technique. The advantages of the femtosecond laser are photochemical machining and the two-photon absorption mechanism. The femtosecond laser system can convert writing into the scan to create a nanostructure by adjusting the lens. The effect of power on the band gap shift during laser scanning was investigated. The band gap shift was small and unstable without the heating substrate. A wavelength shift higher than 77.3 nm for the InGaAsP MQW material was obtained at elevated temperatures.     

Seismic responses of a hemispherical alluvial valley to SV waves： a three-dimensional analytical approximation

An analytical solution to the three-dimensional scattering and diffraction of plane SV-waves by a saturated hemispherical alluvial valley in elastic half-space is obtained by using Fourier–Bessel series expansion technique. The hemispherical alluvial valley with saturated soil deposits is simulated with Biot’s dynamic theory for saturated porous media. The following conclusions based on numerical results can be drawn: (1) there are a significant differences in the seismic response simulation between the previous single-phase models and the present two-phase model; (2) the normalized displacements on the free surface of the alluvial valley depend mainly on the incident wave angles, the dimensionless frequency of the incident SV waves and the porosity of sediments; (3) with the increase of the incident angle, the displacement distributions become more complicated; and the displacements on the free surface of the alluvial valley increase as the porosity of sediments increases.The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50478062 and 10532070) and Open Fund at the Key Laboratory of Urban Security and Disaster Engineering (Beijing University of Technology), Chinese Ministry of Education. The English text was polished by Keren Wang.