Large-Scale Production of 3D Bioactive Glass Macroporous Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

For tissue engineering applications, a scaffold is required that can act as a template and guide for cell proliferation, cell differentiation and tissue growth. Interconnected pores with diameters greater than 100 m are required for tissue ingrowth, vascularisation and nutrient delivery to the centre of the scaffold. 3D bioactive glass scaffolds have been produced, by foaming sol-gel derived bioactive glasses. The method to produce foams with a modal macropore diameter of 100 m, and a handling strength suitable for cell culture, was to foam 50 ml batches of sol with the aid of a surfactant and gelling agent. In vitro and in vivo tests show that the scaffolds have high potential to be used in bone tissue engineering applications. Larger batches are required to produce scaffolds commercially. The aim of this work was to investigate how the process could be up-scaled for commercial use. This study shows that foaming larger aliquots of sol decreased the scaffold porosity and interconnectivity and investigates methods of modifying the process to obtain large quantities of foam scaffolds with pores in excess of 100 m. The optimum method to produce foams of similar pore structure from 200 ml sol to those produced from 50 ml sol comprised of adding 3 ml surfactant and 12 ml dionised water to the sol to start foaming and injecting a gas mixture (70% helium, 30% nitrogen) at 0.2 bar while applying vigorous agitation.     

Capacitive sensors using electropolymerized o-phenylenediamine film doped with ion-pair complex as selective elements for the determination of pentoxyverine

A capacitive sensing method based on electropolymerized o-phenylenediamine film doped with pentoxyverine ion-pair complex as selective element was successfully developed for the determination of pentoxyverine. Ion-pair complex, pentoxyverine-tetraphenylborate or pentoxyverine-picrolonate, was embedded in electropolymerized o-phenylenediamine film by electropolymerizing technique. The effects of working frequency and test solution pH on the detection of pentoxyverine were investigated in detail and optimized. For the sensor modified with pentoxyverine-tetraphenylborate, calibration curve was linear over the concentration range of 5.0×10⁻⁷ to 1.0×10⁻⁴ M with a detection limit of 1.0×10⁻⁷ M at pH 7. The proposed sensor exhibited high selectivity and sensitivity to pentoxyverine. The results in sample analysis confirmed the usefulness of the proposed ISC sensor for quantitative analysis, and also indicated that this method might find applications in the assay of other drugs.     

Organosilica materials with 1,5-bis-(2’-ethyl)-2,4-dimethyl benzene bridging groups

Using 1,5-bis-(2-trichlorosilylethyl)-2,4-dimethyl benzene, we have obtained porous organosilica materials containing 1.5 to 100 mole % 1,5-bis-(2-ethyl)-2,4-dimethyl benzene bridging groups. We have used X-ray phase analysis, adsorption, Fourier transform IR (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, and temperature-programmed desorption mass spectrometry methods to study their structure and composition. We have shown that the materials obtained generally are characterized by a biporous structure and aerosol properties: large pore volume (up to 4 cm³/g) and low density (~70 mg/cm³).Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimentalnaya Khimiya, Vol. 40, No. 6, pp. 373–379, November–December, 2004.     

Numerical blow‐up for the porous medium equation with a source

We study numerical approximations of positive solutions of the porous medium equation with a nonlinear source, where m > 1, p > 0 and L > 0 are parameters. We describe in terms of p, m, and L when solutions of a semidiscretization in space exist globally in time and when they blow up in a finite time. We also find the blow‐up rates and the blow‐up sets, proving that there is no regional blow‐up for the numerical scheme. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2004     

Design of a Thin Film Infrared Barcode on a Flexible Substrate

We report the design, fabrication and characterization of an infrared barcode. This barcode is composed of a bilayer of titanium and amorphous silicon on a flexible Kapton substrate. Information encoded in the barcode shows high contrast when viewed with an infrared imaging system in the 8 to 12 m spectral region. The barcode information is concealed under visible viewing conditions, i.e., the barcode appears as an untreated, uniform metal sheet to a detector of visible radiation (400 to 700nm).     

Morphology of Electropolymerized Poly(N-Methylaniline) Films

The influence of polymerization conditions on the morphology of thin films of poly-(N-methylaniline) (PNMA) was studied. The films were prepared by electropolymerization on gold and platinum electrodes and studied by optical and electron microscopy. It was demonstrated that the film morphology does not depend on the polymerization rate or on the electrode metal. However, it is sensitive to the kind of counter ion of PNMA. The polymers containing acetate or chloride do not form stable films. Polymer films containing phosphate or sulfate display inhomogeneous structures. A formation of sprouts and nanotubes was observed for PNMA sulfate. The films formed by PNMA perchlorate are smooth and transparent (glass-like structure). A sublayer of 4-aminothiophenol increases the adhesion of polymers to the gold surface.     

Peculiarities of the Behavior of Porous Titanium Dioxide in the Photocatalytic Evolution of Molecular Hydrogen from Aqueous Ethanolic Solutions

Peculiarities of the behavior of porous titanium dioxide in the photocatalytic evolution of molecular hydrogen from aqueous ethanolic solutions are shown to arise from the accumulation of long lived "free" electrons and titanium(III) ions in the irradiated samples, and the slow transport of electrons to the surface of the TiO₂ particles. This explains the dependence of the effectiveness of the process on both the intensity of the irradiation and on the length of time the irradiated samples are kept in the dark.     

Influences of Heating Condition and Substrate-Surface Roughness on the Characteristics of Sol-Gel-Derived Hydroxyapatite Coatings

A prepared transparent HA solution was coated on Ti6Al4V substrates by a spin-coating technique. The crystallization of the sol-gel-derived HA coated on the metallic substrates could be done at relatively low firing temperatures (as low as 600°C). The characteristics of the HA-coated layer were dependent on the surface roughness of substrates and heating conditions such as firing temperature, holding time, heating rate, and atmosphere. The heat treatment at a slow heating rate (<2°C/min.) and a long heating time (>10 hrs) at 600°C in air produced the uniform surface and improved the crystallinity. The HA layer coated on 20 m grit-blasted substates was more uniform and had fever cracks after firing, compared with that coated on 100 m grit-blasted rougher substrates.     

Dielectric resonances in disordered media

Binary disordered systems are usually obtained by mixing two ingredients in variable proportions: conductor and insulator, or conductor and super-conductor. They present very specific properties, in particular the second-order percolation phase transition, with its fractal geometry and the multi-fractal properties of the current moments. These systems are naturally modeled by regular bi-dimensional or tri-dimensional lattices, on which sites or bonds are chosen randomly with given probabilities. The two significant parameters are the ratio h = σ ₁/σ of the complex conductances, σ and σ ₁, of the two components, and their relative abundances p (or, respectively, 1 - p). In this article, we calculate the impedance of the composite by two independent methods: the so-called spectral method, which diagonalises Kirchhoff's Laws via a Green function formalism, and the Exact Numerical Renormalization method (ENR). These methods are applied to mixtures of resistors and capacitors (R-C systems), simulating e.g. ionic conductor-insulator systems, and to composites constituted of resistive inductances and capacitors (LR-C systems), representing metal inclusions in a dielectric bulk. The frequency dependent impedances of the latter composites present very intricate structures in the vicinity of the percolation threshold. In this paper, we analyse the LR-C behavior of compounds formed by the inclusion of small conducting clusters (“n-legged animals”) in a dielectric medium. We investigate in particular their absorption spectra who present a pattern of sharp lines at very specific frequencies of the incident electromagnetic field, the goal being to identify the signature of each animal. This enables us to make suggestions of how to build compounds with specific absorption or transmission properties in a given frequency domain. Received 16 August 2002 Published online 14 February 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: laurent.raymond@l2mp.fr RID="b" ID="b"e-mail: steffen.schaefer@l2mp.fr RID="c" ID="c"UMR CNRS 6137     

3D Large scale Marangoni convection in liquid films

We study large scale surface deformations of a liquid film unstable due to the Marangoni effect caused by external heating on a smooth and solid substrate. The work is based on the thin film equation which can be derived from the basic hydrodynamic equations. To prevent rupture, a repelling disjoining pressure is included which accounts for the stabilization of a thin precursor film and so prevents the occurrence of completely dry regions. Linear stability analysis, nonlinear stationary solutions, as well as three-dimensional time dependent numerical solutions for horizontal and inclined substrates reveal a rich scenario of possible structures for several realistic fluid parameters.