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Topic Review
4D Printing Technologies
3D printing has played a crucial role in the last decades as an innovative technology for tissue and organ fabrication, patient-specific orthoses, drug delivery, and surgical planning. However, biomedical materials used for 3D printing are usually static and unable to dynamically respond or transform within the internal environment of the body. These materials are fabricated ex situ, which involves first printing on a planar substrate and then deploying it to the target surface, thus resulting in a possible mismatch between the printed part and the target surfaces. The emergence of 4D printing addresses some of these drawbacks, opening an attractive path for the biomedical sector. By preprogramming smart materials, 4D printing is able to manufacture structures that dynamically respond to external stimuli. Despite these potentials, 4D printed dynamic materials are still in their infancy of development. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) could push these technologies forward enlarging their applicability, boosting the design space of smart materials by selecting promising ones with desired architectures, properties, and functions, reducing the time to manufacturing, and allowing the in situ printing directly on target surfaces achieving high-fidelity of human body micro-structures. 
  • 1.3K
  • 29 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Polyhydroxyalkanoates
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of microbial polyesters which comprise of a large family of thermoplastic polymers. They are produced by a variety of prokaryotic microorganisms under unbalanced nutrition conditions as carbon and energy storage materials.
  • 1.3K
  • 23 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Overview of viable Bacteria Immobilisation
Bioremediation is a key process for reclaiming polluted soil and water by the use of biological agents. A commonly used approach aims to neutralise or remove harmful pollutants from contaminated areas using live microorganisms. Generally, immobilised microorganisms rather than planktonic cells have been used in bioremediation methods. Activated carbon, inorganic minerals (clays, metal oxides, zeolites), and agricultural waste products are acceptable substrates for the immobilisation of bacteria, although there are limitations with biomass loading and the issue with leaching of bacteria during the process. Various synthetic and natural polymers with different functional groups have been used successfully for the efficient immobilisation of microorganisms and cells. Promise has been shown using macroporous materials including cryogels with entrapped bacteria or cells in applications for water treatment and biotechnology. A cryogel is a macroporous polymeric gel formed at sub-zero temperatures through a process known as cryogelation. Macroporous hydrogels have been used to make scaffolds or supports for immobilising bacterial, viral, and other cells. The production of composite materials with immobilised cells possessing suitable mechanical and chemical stability, porosity, elasticity, and biocompatibility suggests that these materials are potential candidates for a range of applications within applied microbiology, biotechnology, and research. 
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Shape Memory Materials of Rubbers
Smart materials are much discussed in the current research scenario. The shape memory effect is one of the most fascinating occurrences in smart materials, both in terms of the phenomenon and its applications. Many metal alloys and polymers exhibit the shape memory effect (SME).
  • 1.3K
  • 06 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Self-Healing Mechanisms and 3D Printing
Existing self-healing mechanisms are still very far from full-scale implementation, and most published work has only demonstrated damage cure at the laboratory level. Their rheological nature makes the mechanisms for damage cure difficult to implement, as the component or structure is expected to continue performing its function. In most cases, a molecular bond level chemical reaction is required for complete healing with external stimulations such as heating, light and temperature change. Such requirements of external stimulations and reactions make the existing self-healing mechanism almost impossible to implement in 3D printed products, particularly in critical applications.
  • 1.3K
  • 17 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Shape-Memory Polymeric Artificial Muscles
Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) are intelligent materials capable of sensing an external stimulus and entering a transient state according to a stimulus-response, and finally recovering to the initial state through a recovery process, known as the shape memory effect. 
  • 1.3K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Composite Electromagnetic Shielding Applications
With advancements in the automated industry, electromagnetic inferences (EMI) have been increasing over time, causing major distress among the end-users and affecting electronic appliances. The issue is not new and major work has been done, but unfortunately, the issue has not been fully eliminated.
  • 1.2K
  • 19 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Bioplastics in the Circular Economy
The European Union is working towards the 2050 net-zero emissions goal and tackling the ever-growing environmental and sustainability crisis by implementing the European Green Deal. The shift towards a more sustainable society is intertwined with the production, use, and disposal of plastic in the European economy. Emissions generated by plastic production, plastic waste, littering and leakage in nature, insufficient recycling, are some of the issues addressed by the European Commission. Adoption of bioplastics–plastics that are biodegradable, bio-based, or both–is under assessment as one way to decouple society from the use of fossil resources, and to mitigate specific environmental risks related to plastic waste. 
  • 1.2K
  • 22 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Polymer Composites with Carbon Fillers
To address the low thermal conduction of the polymer materials, many kinds of thermally conductive fillers have been studied, and the carbon-based polymer composite is regarded as one of the most promising materials for the thermal management of the electric and electronic devices.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Ultrasonic Welding
The ultrasonic welding (UW) technique is an ultra-fast joining process used to join thermoplastics, metals and thermoplastic polymer matrix composites.
  • 1.2K
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Non-Fullerene Acceptors of IDIC/ITIC Families
IDIC/ITIC families of non-fullerene acceptors has boosted the photovoltaic performances of bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells. The fine tuning of the photophysical, morphological and processability properties with the aim of reaching higher and higher photocurrent efficiencies has prompted uninterrupted worldwide research on these peculiar families of organic compounds.
  • 1.2K
  • 17 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Natural Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites
As one of the fastest-growing additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, fused deposition modelling (FDM) shows great potential in printing natural fibre-reinforced composites (NFRC). However, several challenges, such as low mechanical properties and difficulty in printing, need to be overcome. Therefore, the effort to improve the NFRC for use in AM has been accelerating in recent years.
  • 1.2K
  • 23 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Printed Electronics
Printed electronics are manufactured in a process of registering thin functional material (ink) layer combinations on a low-cost substrate that may be recycled and/or naturally degraded in nature. Correspondingly, the manufacturing process is composed of three complementary stages: material selection, printing and post-printing. The materials for the printed electronics are principally inks of conducting, semiconducting or dielectric characteristics and substrates, which are derived from synthetic or natural polymers.  The inks are transferred with a master through direct contact to the substrate in case of contact printing, while they are deposited onto the substrate typically through nozzles in case of non-contact printing. Posterior to the printing process, it is often necessary to conduct sintering/curing in order to reach the desired functional ink and substrate characteristics. The inks, substrate and the printing technology along with the post printing requirements must be carefully evaluated for quality, repeatability and life-time aspects of the yield.
  • 1.2K
  • 23 Aug 2021
Topic Review
High Performance Bioplastics
Biomass provides a wealth of renewable and bio-waste resources for bioplastics synthesis. Many of these bio-based plastics, encompass capacities for biodegradation and bioprocessing with high performance features akin to petroleum-based plastics. The realisation of bioplastics that exhibit a complete set of mechanical and biodegradability, hold the promise of delivering material of ecologically sustainable, low carbon footprint circularity.
  • 1.2K
  • 14 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Polyester Fibrous Panels
Nowadays, polyester fibrous materials are becoming one of the most important alternatives for controlling reverberation time by absorbing unwanted sound energy in the automobile and construction fields. The polyester nonwoven structure used in noise reduction is normally in the form of panel.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Anion Exchange Membranes with Inorganic Fillers
Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFC) are clean energy conversion devices that are an attractive alternative to the more common proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), because they present, among others, the advantage of not using noble metals like platinum as catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction. The AEMs are the central element of many technologically relevant devices, first and foremost alkaline membrane fuel cells (FC). These fuel cells can significantly reduce the amount of noble metal catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and may represent the future of FC development.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 Nov 2021
Topic Review
High Performance Polymer Composites
Summarize data on the structure, mechanical and tribological properties, and wear patterns of composites based on high-performance polymers (HPPs) intended for use in friction units. The three key sections, divided according to the tribological contact schemes regardless of the polymer matrix. In the second part, the analysis of composites is carried out in point contacts. The third section is devoted to the results of studies of HPP-based composites in linear ones. The fourth section summarizes information on flat contacts. Particular attention is paid to the formation of transfer films (TFs) in the contacts and their influence on the tribological patterns of the studied rubbing materials.
  • 1.2K
  • 16 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Mechanism of Self-Healing Hydrogels
Polymeric hydrogels have drawn considerable attention as a biomedical material for their unique mechanical and chemical properties, which are very similar to natural tissues. Among the conventional hydrogel materials, self-healing hydrogels (SHH) are showing their promise in biomedical applications in tissue engineering, wound healing, and drug delivery. Additionally, their responses can be controlled via external stimuli (e.g., pH, temperature, pressure, or radiation). Identifying a suitable combination of viscous and elastic materials, lipophilicity and biocompatibility are crucial challenges in the development of SHH. Furthermore, the trade-off relation between the healing performance and the mechanical toughness also limits their real-time applications. Additionally, short-term and long-term effects of many SHH in the in vivo model are yet to be reported.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Bio-Inspired Hierarchical Fibres
Several naturally occurring biological systems, such as bones, nacre or wood, display hierarchical architectures with a central role of the nanostructuration that allows reaching amazing properties such as high strength and toughness. Developing such architectures in man-made materials is highly challenging, and recent research relies on this concept of hierarchical structures to design high-performance composite materials. This review deals more specifically with the development of hierarchical fibres by the deposition of nano-objects at their surface to tailor the fibre/matrix interphase in (bio)composites. Fully synthetic hierarchical fibre reinforced composites are described, and the potential of hierarchical fibres is discussed for the development of sustainable biocomposite materials with enhanced structural performance. Based on various surface, microstructural and mechanical characterizations, this review highlights that nano-objects coated on natural fibres (carbonnanotubes, ZnO nanowires, nanocelluloses) can improve the load transfer and interfacial adhesion between the matrix and the fibres, and the resulting mechanical performances of biocomposites. Indeed, the surface topography of the fibres is modified with higher roughness and specific surface area, implying increased mechanical interlocking with the matrix. As a result, the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) between fibres and polymer matrices is enhanced, and failure mechanisms can bemodified with a crack propagation occurring through a zig-zag path along interphases.
  • 1.2K
  • 29 May 2021
Topic Review
Hip Implant Applications
Three-dimensional (3D) printing offers significant potential as an efficient fabrication technique on personalized organs as it is capable of biomimicking the intricate designs found in nature. In this review, the determining factors for hip replacement and the different fabrication techniques such as direct 3D printing, Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and stereolithography (SLA) for hip replacement. The study also covers surface modifications of 3D printed implants and provides an overview on 3D tissue regeneration. To appreciate the current conventional hip replacement practices, the conventional metallic and ceramic materials are covered, highlighting their rationale as the material of choice. Next, the challenges, ethics and trends in the implants’ 3D printing, outlook and challenges are also presented. 
  • 1.2K
  • 26 Nov 2020
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