Publications by authors named "Monika Bil"

The textile market is a vast industry that utilizes antimicrobial polymeric materials, including various types of fabrics, for medical and personal protection applications. Therefore, this study focused on examining four types of antimicrobial fillers, namely, metal oxides (zinc, titanium, copper) and nanosilver, as fillers in Polyamide 12 fibers. These fillers can be applied in the knitting or weaving processes to obtain woven polymeric fabrics for medical applications.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The effectiveness of multifunctional composites that combine a shape-memory polyurethane (PU) matrix with hydroxyapatite (HA) as a bioactive agent and antibiotics molecules results from a specific composite structure. In this study, structure-function correlations of PU-based composites consisting of 3, 5, and 10 (wt%) of HA and (5 wt%) of gentamicin sulfate (GeS) as a model drug were investigated. The performed analysis revealed that increasing HA content up to 5 wt% enhanced hydrogen-bonding interaction within the soft segments of the PU.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fibrous shape memory scaffolds composed of thermoplastic polyurethane based on a mixture of polycaprolactone diols were fabricated. The effect of the fiber diameter and arrangement- random (rPU) or aligned (aPU), on crystallinity, mechanical properties, and shape memory was analyzed. The diameters of the fibers were controlled by changing the concentration of polyurethane (PU) solutions in the range of 5% to 16% and fibers alignment by utilization of different collectors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Plastic materials are one of the significant components of construction materials omnipresent in all areas of the industry and everyday life. One of these plastics is polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Due to its processing properties, with a simultaneous low production cost, PET has been used in many industrial applications, including the production of various types of bottles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Graphene and its derivatives have attracted scientists' interest due to their exceptional properties, making them alluring candidates for multiple applications. However, still little is known about the properties of as-obtained graphene derivatives during long-term storage. The aim of this study was to check whether or not 14 months of storage time impacts graphene oxide flakes' suspension purity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Medical implant use is associated with a risk of infection caused by bacteria on their surface. Implants with a surface that has both bone growth-promoting properties and antibacterial properties are of interest in orthopedics. In the current study, we fabricated a bioactive coating of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles on polyether ether ketone (PEEK) using the sonocoating method.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Integration of multiple features including shape memory, biodegradation, and sustained drug delivery in a single material offers the opportunity to significantly improve the abilities of implantable devices for cardiovascular system regeneration. Two types of shape memory polyurethanes (SMPUs): PU-PLGA and PU-PLLA/PEG differing in soft segments composition that comprising blends of various biodegradable polyols, i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

While highly porous biodegradable sponges have typically been used as tissue engineering scaffolds, they could be applicable in settings requiring drug delivery. Since most drug delivery devices are intentionally solid, nonporous polymers, a detailed structure-function relationship of delivery from a porous degradable sponges would allow researchers to develop such devices for either delivery alone, or in conjunction with tissue engineering. Two fabrication techniques (salt-leaching and solvent-quenching) were used to prepare several different variations of poly(DL-lactide-glycolide) and poly(caprolactone)-co-poly(lactide) porous sponges.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Biodegradable polyurethanes (PURs) have recently been investigated as candidate materials for bone regenerative medicine. There are promising reports documenting the biocompatibility of selected PURs in vivo and the tolerance of certain cells toward PURs in vitro - potentially to be used as scaffolds for tissue-engineered products (TEPs). The aim of the present study was to take a step forward and create a TEP using human osteogenic cells and a polyurethane scaffold, and to evaluate the quality of the obtained TEP in vivo.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Polyurethanes containing 22-70 wt.% hard segments were developed and evaluated for bone tissue engineering applications. Aliphatic poly(ester-urethanes) were synthesised from poly(epsilon-caprolactone) diol with different molecular masses (M= approximately 530, 1250 and 2000 Da), cycloaliphatic diisocyanate 4,4'-methylenebis(cyclohexyl isocyanate) and ethylene glycol as a chain extender.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were deposited on the surfaces of polyurethane (PUR) foams by electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The parameters of EPD were optimized in order to obtain homogeneous CNT coatings on PUR foams and adequate infiltration of the three-dimensional (3D) porous network. The microstructure of the composites was investigated by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), revealing that optimal quality of the coatings was achieved by an EPD voltage of 20 V.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF