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Topic Review
Enhancing Weathering Resistance of Wood
Although weathering is primarily a surface phenomenon, it is an important issue for wood products as it affects their appearance, service life, and wood-coating performance. To encourage the use of wood as a material for joinery and other building components, the results of research into increasing the weathering resistance of wood are extremely significant. The development of weathering protection methods is of great importance to reduce the maintenance requirements for wood exposed outdoors and can have a major environmental impact.
  • 1.2K
  • 30 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Synthetic Polymer-Based Sensors
Polymers are long-chain, highly molecular weight molecules containing large numbers of repeating units within their backbone derived from the product of polymerization of monomeric units. The materials exhibit unique properties based on the types of bonds that exist within their structures. Among these, some behave as rubbers because of their excellent bending ability, lightweight nature, and shape memory. Moreover, their tunable chemical, structural, and electrical properties make them promising candidates for their use as sensing materials. Polymer-based sensors are highly utilized in the current scenario in the public health sector and environment control due to their rapid detection, small size, high sensitivity, and suitability in atmospheric conditions.
  • 1.2K
  • 16 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Antibacterial Activity of Chitosan and Its Derivatives
This research illuminates the various methods of chitosan extraction, its antibacterial properties, and its multifarious applications in diverse sectors. The choice of method is dictated by multiple variables, including the desired properties of chitosan, resource availability, cost, and environmental footprint.
  • 1.2K
  • 21 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Drug Delievery of Nanocrystals
The development of new drugs is often hindered by low solubility in water, a problem common to nearly 90% of natural and/or synthetic molecules in the discovery pipeline. Nanocrystalline drug technology involves the reduction in the bulk particle size down to the nanosize range, thus modifying its physico-chemical properties with beneficial effects on drug bioavailability. Nanocrystals (NCs) are carrier-free drug particles surrounded by a stabilizer and suspended in an aqueous medium. Due to high drug loading, NCs maintain a potent therapeutic concentration to produce desirable pharmacological action, particularly useful in the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) diseases. In addition to the therapeutic purpose, NC technology can be applied for diagnostic scope. The possibility of adapting NCs to different pharmaceutical forms has led to the development of these nanosystems for different routes of administration, among which the most studied is the oral route.
  • 1.2K
  • 02 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Fabrication-4D-Printed Shape Memory Polymers
Additive manufacturing (AM) is the process through which components/structures are produced layer-by-layer. In this context, 4D printing combines 3D printing with time so that this combination results in additively manufactured components that respond to external stimuli and, consequently, change their shape/volume or modify their mechanical properties. Therefore, 4D printing uses shape-memory materials that react to external stimuli such as pH, humidity, and temperature. Among the possible materials with shape memory effect (SME), the most suitable for additive manufacturing are shape memory polymers (SMPs).
  • 1.2K
  • 27 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Chitosan-Containing Composite Materials for Adsorption and Catalysis
Composite materials including organic–inorganic systems have drawn special attention due to their enhanced properties such as adsorbents and heterogeneous catalysts. At the same time, large-scale production of environmentally benign functionalized biopolymers, such as chitosan (CS), allows for constantly developing new materials, since CS reveals remarkable properties as a stabilizing agent for metal-containing compounds and enzymes and as an adsorbent of organic molecules. 
  • 1.2K
  • 15 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Chemical Composition of Giant Miscanthus from Different Climatic Regions
Lignocellulosic biomass is of great interest as an alternative energy resource because it has a number of advantages. Miscanthus x gigantis is a lignocellulosic feedstock of particular interest because it combines high biomass productivity with low environmental impact, including control of CO 2 emissions. The chemical composition of lignocellulose determines the possibilities of its use for efficient industrial processing. Here we have collected specimens from a collection of Miscanthus x giganteus, which were grown in different climatic regions between 2019 and 2021. The chemical composition was quantified using traditional wet methods. The results were compared with each other and with known data. It has been shown that already from the first year of vegetation, miscanthus has the following chemical composition: cellulose content 43.2–55.5%, acid-insoluble lignin content 17.1–25.1%, pentosan 17.9–22.9%, ash content 0, 90–2.95%, and 0.3–1.2% extractives. Habitat and environment have been found to influence the chemical composition of miscanthus. It was found that the stem part of miscanthus is richer in fiber than the leaf part (48.4–54.9% versus 47.2–48.9%, respectively), regardless of the age of the plantation and habitat. The data obtained expand the geography of research into the chemical composition of miscanthus and confirm the high value of miscanthus for industrial processing into cellulose products around the world.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Graphene Sensors
Graphene is one of the most promising materials for gas-sensor applications.
  • 1.2K
  • 07 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Flexible Electrochromic Materials
The application potential of flexible electrochromic materials for wearable devices, smart textiles, flexible displays, electronic paper, and implantable biomedical devices is enormous. These materials offer the advantages of conformability and mechanical robustness, making them highly desirable for these applications.
  • 1.2K
  • 07 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Design of Liquid-Crystalline Elastomeric Fluorescent Force Sensors
Liquid single crystal elastomers (LSCEs) containing carbazole fluorogenic components alter their luminescence when they are stretched along the director direction. The differential luminescent behavior arises from the distinct interaction between the carbazole fluorophores and their local environment before and after the application of the mechanical input. Indeed, the uniaxial deformation of the material, along its anisotropic direction, forces a closer mesogen–fluorophore interaction, which leads to the quenching of the carbazole luminescence. Importantly, this intermolecular interaction is intimately related to the intrinsic order present in the LSCE. As a result, the amount of light emitted by the material in the form of fluorescence diminishes upon deformation. Thus, the application of mechanical stimuli to liquid-crystalline elastomers furnishes to two interconvertible states for the system with distinct optical properties (with either different emission color or fluorescence intensity). The initial state of the material is completely restored once the applied force is removed. In this way, this kind of macromolecular system can transduce mechanical events into detectable and processable optical signals, thus, having great potential as optical force sensors. In this context, the realization of the distinct structural factors that govern the interactions established between the mesogenic and fluorogenic units at the supramolecular level upon deformation is essential for the development of efficient LSCE-based force sensors. In fact, not only the density of carbazole units and their connection to the main polymer backbone, but also the presence of long range molecular order in the system and the type of mesophase exhibited by the LSCE are key factors for the conception of efficient force sensors based on these self-organized polymer networks.
  • 1.2K
  • 20 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Application of Polycaprolactone-Based Materials in Nanoformulations
Among the various materials used for the fabrication of nanoparticles, polycaprolactone (PCL) has gained considerable attention due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility, and ease of synthesis.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Thiolated-Polymer-Based Nanoparticles
Thiomers (or thiolated polymers) have broken through as avant-garde approaches in anticancer therapy. Their distinguished reactivity and properties, closely linked to their final applications, justify the extensive research conducted on their preparation and use as smart drug-delivery systems (DDSs).
  • 1.2K
  • 22 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Polymer-Based Thermal Management Material
The thermally conductive polymer is usually categorized into the intrinsic thermally conductive polymers and the thermally conductive polymer composites.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Natural and Synthetic Polymeric Biomaterials in Wound Management
Biomaterials are at the forefront of the future, finding a variety of applications in the biomedical field, especially in wound healing, thanks to their biocompatible and biodegradable properties. Wounds spontaneously try to heal through a series of interconnected processes involving several initiators and mediators such as cytokines, macrophages, and fibroblasts. The combination of biopolymers with wound healing properties may provide opportunities to synthesize matrices that stimulate and trigger target cell responses crucial to the healing process. 
  • 1.2K
  • 07 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Membrane-Based Environmental Remediation
During the last century, industrialization has grown very fast and as a result heavy metals have contaminated many water sources. Due to their high toxicity, these pollutants are hazardous for humans, fish, and aquatic flora. Traditional techniques for their removal are adsorption, electro-dialysis, precipitation, and ion exchange, but they all present various drawbacks. Membrane technology represents an exciting alternative to the traditional ones characterized by high efficiency, low energy consumption and waste production, mild operating conditions, and easy scale-up. In this review, the attention has been focused on applying driven-pressure membrane processes for heavy metal removal, highlighting each of the positive and negative aspects. Advantages and disadvantages, and recent progress on the production of nanocomposite membranes and electrospun nanofiber membranes for the adsorption of heavy metal ions have also been reported and critically discussed. Finally, future prospective research activities and the key steps required to make their use effective on an industrial scale have been presented
  • 1.2K
  • 02 Jul 2021
Topic Review
3D Printing of ECHs
Electrically conductive hydrogels (ECHs), an emerging class of biomaterials, have garnered tremendous attention due to their potential for a wide variety of biomedical applications, from tissue-engineered scaffolds to smart bioelectronics. Along with the development of new hydrogel systems, 3D printing of such ECHs is one of the most advanced approaches towards rapid fabrication of future biomedical implants and devices with versatile designs and tuneable functionalities.
  • 1.2K
  • 06 May 2021
Topic Review
Thermally Conductive 3D Aerogels Based on Carbon Nanofillers
Aerogels are perfect 3D interconnected designs with unique properties provided by tenuous networks of nanosheets or filaments; they are typically fabricated via sol–gel, freeze drying, and other phase-separating and drying techniques and possess remarkable properties, such as an extraordinarily high specific surface area, great flexibility, low density, variable tunable porosity, low dielectric constant, and low TC. Due to the abovementioned advantageous physical features, they present a large amount of promise for applications as adaptable absorbent materials and for their uses in EM shielding, thermal insulation, and wearable pressure-sensing materials, to be employed as a multifunctional aerogel material. 
  • 1.2K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Chromophoric Dendrimer-Based Materials
Dendrimers (from the Greek dendros → tree; meros → part) are macromolecules with well-defined three-dimensional and tree-like structures. Remarkably, this hyperbranched architecture is one of the most ubiquitous, prolific, and recognizable natural patterns observed in nature. 
  • 1.2K
  • 16 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Synthetic Polymeric Corrosion Inhibitor
An anti-corrosion inhibitor is one of the most useful methods to prevent metal corrosion toward different media. In comparison with small molecular inhibitors, a polymeric inhibitor can integrate more adsorption groups and generate a synergetic effect, which has been widely used in industry and become a hot topic in academic research.
  • 1.2K
  • 24 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Thermodynamic Aspects Governing Shape Memory Elastomers
Shape memory elastomers have revolutionised the world since their introduction in the 20th century. The ability to tailor chemical structures to produce a family of materials in wide-ranging forms with versatile properties has propelled them to be ubiquitous.
  • 1.1K
  • 02 Sep 2022
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