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Topic Review
Liquid Phase Infiltration of Block Copolymers
Novel materials with defined composition and structures at the nanoscale are increasingly desired in several research fields spanning a wide range of applications. Self-assembling materials such as block copolymers (BCPs), in combination with liquid phase infiltration (LPI) processes, represent an ideal strategy for the synthesis of inorganic materials into even more complex and functional features.
  • 778
  • 26 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Benefits of Chemical Desalination
The ideal chemical desalination approach is undertaken (i) without specialist training, (ii) on a typical agricultural holding (1 to 100 ha−1), and (iii) using existing water tanks and/or impoundments. It reduces the overall feed water required to produce x m3 of water (relative to reverse osmosis). It produces minimal or no waste products that require disposal.
  • 775
  • 05 May 2023
Topic Review
Polymeric Nanomaterials for Efficient Delivery of Antimicrobial Agents
Polymeric nanomaterials have been widely studied as carriers for constructing antimicrobial agent delivery systems and have shown advantages including high biocompatibility, sustained release, targeting and improved bioavailability. 
  • 773
  • 20 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Bioactive Polymers and Cardiovascular Therapy
Coronary heart disease remains one of the leading causes of death in most countries. Healthcare improvements have seen a shift in the presentation of disease with a reducing number of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMIs), largely due to earlier reperfusion strategies such as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Stents have revolutionized the care of these patients, but the long-term effects of these devices have been brought to the fore. The conceptual and technologic evolution of these devices from bare-metal stents led to the creation and wide application of drug-eluting stents; further research introduced the idea of polymer-based resorbable stents.
  • 770
  • 17 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Organ-on-Chip
Organ-on-chip (OOC) devices are in vitro miniaturized multicellular systems with defined architectures that represent the new frontier in biomedical research to produce micro-organoids and tissues for drug testing and regenerative medicine. Although OOC devices can potentially improve the prediction capability of preclinical studies in comparison to in vitro tests and animal models, the successful transition from conventional 2D cell culture to human OOC implies the development of microfluidically supported 3D architectures to mimic the native extracellular matrix (ECM), to induce cell-ECM and multicellular interactions, as well as to modulate many cell functions including polarity, morphology, and motility. In this regard, cell-laden microgels (CLMs) represent a promising tool for 3D cell culturing and on-chip generation of micro-organs. 
  • 765
  • 08 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Optimized Polymeric Membranes for Water Treatment
Conventional polymers, endowed with specific functionalities, are extensively utilized for filtering and extracting a diverse set of chemicals, notably metals, from solutions. The main structure of a polymer is an integral part for designing an efficient separating system. However, its chemical functionality further contributes to the selectivity, fabrication process, and resulting product morphology. One example would be a membrane that can be employed to selectively remove a targeted metal ion or chemical from a solution, leaving behind the useful components of the solution. Such membranes or products are highly sought after for purifying polluted water contaminated with toxic and heavy metals. An efficient water-purifying membrane must fulfill several requirements, including a specific morphology attained by the material with a specific chemical functionality and facile fabrication for integration into a purifying module Therefore, the selection of an appropriate polymer and its functionalization become crucial and determining steps.
  • 750
  • 23 Jan 2024
Topic Review
Application of Polymers in Liquid Biopsy-Based Diagnosis
Minimally invasive approaches for cancer diagnosis are an integral step in the quest to improve cancer survival. Liquid biopsies such as blood samples are matrices explored to extract valuable information about the tumor and its state through various indicators, such as proteins, peptides, tumor DNA, or circulating tumor cells. Although these markers are scarce, making their isolation and detection in complex matrices challenging, the development in polymer chemistry producing interesting structures, including molecularly imprinted polymers, branched polymers, nanopolymer composites, and hybrids, allowed the development of enhanced platforms with impressive performance for liquid biopsies analysis.
  • 748
  • 13 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Ultraviolet-C for mask disinfection
Change in the title since the subject is more specific 
  • 745
  • 23 Jun 2021
Topic Review
The Pathways to Create Containers for Bacteriophage Delivery
Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health threat. One of the possible ways to solve this problem is phage therapy, but the instability of bacteriophages hinders the development of this approach. A bacteriophage delivery system that stabilizes the phage is one of the possible solutions to this problem. 
  • 740
  • 23 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Conductive Molecularly Imprinted Polymers
Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have proven useful as receptor materials in chemical sensing and have been reported for a wide range of applications. Based on their simplicity and stability compared to other receptor types, they bear huge application potential related to ongoing digitalization. This is the case especially for conductive molecularly imprinted polymers (cMIPs), which allow easy connection to commercially available sensing platforms; thus, they do not require complex measuring setups.
  • 740
  • 07 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Structure-Oriented Design of Hyper-Crosslinked Porous Organic Nanomaterials
Hyper-crosslinked porous organic nanomaterials, especially the hyper-crosslinked polymers (HCPs), are a unique class of materials that combine the benefits of high surface area, porous structure, and good chemical and thermal stability all rolled into one. A wide range of synthetic methods offer an enormous variety of HCPs with different pore structures and morphologies, which has allowed HCPs to be developed for gas adsorption and separations, chemical adsorption and encapsulation, and heterogeneous catalysis. 
  • 739
  • 15 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Phosphonium-Based Polyelectrolytes
Phosphorous is an essential element for the life of organisms, and phosphorus-based compounds have many uses in industry, such as flame retardancy reagents, ingredients in fertilizers, pyrotechnics, etc. Ionic liquids are salts with melting points lower than the boiling point of water. The term “polymerized ionic liquids” (PILs) refers to a class of polyelectrolytes that contain an ionic liquid (IL) species in each monomer repeating unit and are connected by a polymeric backbone to form macromolecular structures. PILs provide a new class of polymeric materials by combining some of the distinctive qualities of ILs in the polymer chain. Ionic liquids have been identified as attractive prospects for a variety of applications due to the high stability (thermal, chemical, and electrochemical) and high mobility of their ions, but their practical applicability is constrained because they lack the benefits of both liquids and solids, suffering from both leakage issues and excessive viscosity. PILs are garnering for developing non-volatile and non-flammable solid electrolytes.
  • 731
  • 12 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Mechanical Recycling of Thermoplastics
Plastic materials have gathered attention recently due to their omnipresence in the global economy. The transition towards a circular economy is the only way to prevent the environment from landfilling and incineration.
  • 722
  • 12 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Non-Covalent Interactions of Intrinsic Self-Healing Elastomers
Self-healing elastomers refer to a class of synthetic polymers that possess the unique ability to autonomously repair from internal and external damages. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the field of self-healing elastomers. In particular, intrinsic self-healing elastomers have garnered a great deal of attention. 
  • 713
  • 18 Dec 2023
Topic Review
Resins and Additive Manufacturing in Stereolithographies
Since its inception in 1984, 3D printing has revolutionized manufacturing by leveraging the additivity principle and simple material–energy coupling. Stereolithography, as the pioneering technology, introduced the concept of photopolymerization with a single photon. This groundbreaking approach not only established the essential criteria for additive processes employing diverse localized energies and materials, including solid, pasty, powdery, organic, and mineral substances, but also underscored the significance of light–matter interactions in the spatial and temporal domains, impacting various critical aspects of stereolithography’s performance.
  • 700
  • 24 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Polyacetylene Derivatives in Gas and Liquid Separation
Some substituted polyacetylenes have distorted structures and formed micropores due to the existence of rigid main chains and substituted side groups, which can be applied to the field of membrane separation.
  • 676
  • 03 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Applications of Self-Reparable Antimicrobial Polysiloxanes
Organosilicon polymers (silicones) are an important part of material chemistry and a well-established commercial product segment with a wide range of applications. Silicones are of enduring interest due to their unique properties and utility. New application areas for silicone-based materials have emerged, such as stretchable electronics, wearable stress sensors, smart coatings, and soft robotics.
  • 668
  • 14 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Selected Polymers - Structure, Properties and Food-Related Applications
Every application of a substance results from the macroscopic property of the substance that is related to the substance’s microscopic structure. For example, the forged park gate in your city was produced thanks to the malleability and ductility of metals, which are related to the ability of shifting of layers of metal cations, while fire extinguishing powders use the high boiling point of compounds related to their regular ionic and covalent structures. This also applies to polymers.
  • 665
  • 27 May 2022
Topic Review
Copper-Modified Polymeric Membranes
Copper has attractive characteristics: excellent antimicrobial activity, high natural abundance, low cost and the existence of multiple cost-effective synthesis routes for obtaining copper-based materials with tunable characteristics, which favor their incorporation into polymeric membranes.
  • 657
  • 12 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Aging Performance of Polymer-Modified Binders
The term “aging of polymer-modified binder”, as well as the term “bitumen aging” in a generalized form, combines the whole set of reversible and irreversible changes in its chemical composition, physical transformations, and changes in structural and mechanical properties occurring during the production of polymer-modified binders, its storage/transportation, technological processing, and operation, i.e., during the entire lifecycle of the polymer-modified binder. Polymer-modified binders are complex multicomponent systems in which polymer and other additives, if available, make a significant contribution to the aging process.
  • 656
  • 15 Dec 2023
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