High-resolution 3D-printable hydrogels with high mechanical strength and biocompatibility are in great demand because of their potential applications in numerous fields. In this study, a material system comprising Pluronic F-127 dimethacrylate (FDMA) is developed to function as a direct ink writing (DIW) hydrogel for 3D printing. FDMA is a triblock copolymer that transforms into micelles at elevated temperatures. The transformation increases the viscosity of FDMA and preserves its structure during DIW 3D printing, whereupon the printed structure is solidified through photopolymerization. Because of this viscosity shift, various functionalities can be incorporated through the addition of other materials in the solution state. Acrylic acid is incorporated into the pregel solution to enhance the mechanical strength, because the carboxylate group of poly(acrylic acid) ionically crosslinks with Fe , increasing the toughness of the DIW hydrogel 37 times to 2.46 MJ m . Tough conductive hydrogels are also 3D printed by homogenizing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate into the pregel solution. Furthermore, the FDMA platform developed herein uses DIW, which facilitates multicartridges 3D printing, and because all the materials included are biocompatible, the platform may be used to fabricate complex structures for biological applications.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/marc.202100579 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
December 2024
School of Electrical Engineering, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15500, Aalto, FI-00076, Finland.
Engineering plastics are finding widespread applications across a broad temperature spectrum, with additive manufacturing (AM) having now become commonplace for producing aerospace-grade components from polymers. However, there is limited data available on the behavior of plastic AM parts exposed to elevated temperatures. This study focuses on investigating the tensile strength, tensile modulus and Poisson's ratio of parts manufactured using fused filament fabrication (FFF) and polyetheretherketone (PEEK) plastics doped with two additives: short carbon fibers (SCFs) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs).
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December 2024
School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Environment, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China.
The dolomite dust-emulsified asphalt composite (DAC) with excellent mechanical properties was successfully prepared using alkali activation. The effects of different alkali concentrations and emulsified asphalt contents on the mechanical properties of the materials were studied. And the micro-mechanisms of its mechanical performance changes were analyzed through SEM and XRD characterization.
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December 2024
Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan.
Taking advantage of the good mechanical strength of expanded Drosophila brains and to tackle their relatively large size that can complicate imaging, we apply potassium (poly)acrylate-based hydrogels for expansion microscopy (ExM), resulting in a 40x plus increased resolution of transgenic fluorescent proteins preserved by glutaraldehyde fixation in the nervous system. Large-volume ExM is realized by using an axicon-based Bessel lightsheet microscope, featuring gentle multi-color fluorophore excitation and intrinsic optical sectioning capability, enabling visualization of Tm5a neurites and L3 lamina neurons with photoreceptors in the optic lobe. We also image nanometer-sized dopaminergic neurons across the same intact iteratively expanded Drosophila brain, enabling us to measure the 3D expansion ratio.
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December 2024
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology and Brain Functional Modulation, Clinical Research Center for Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Translational Research Institute of Brain and Brain-Like Intelligence, Shanghai Fourth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
Penetrating orocutaneous or oropharyngeal fistulas (POFs), severe complications following unsuccessful oral or oropharyngeal reconstruction, remain complex clinical challenges due to lack of supportive tissue, contamination with saliva and chewed food, and dynamic oral environment. Here, we present a Janus hydrogel adhesive (JHA) with asymmetric functions on opposite sides fabricated via a facile surface enzyme-initiated polymerization (SEIP) approach, which self-entraps surface water and blood within an in-situ formed hydrogel layer (RL) to effectively bridge biological tissues with a supporting hydrogel (SL), achieving superior wet-adhesion and seamless wound plugging. The tough SL hydrogel interlocked with RL dissipates energy to withstand external mechanical stimuli from continuous oral motions like chewing and swallowing, thus reducing stress-induced damage.
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December 2024
College of Mechanical Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430068, China.
The defoliation quality of mugwort defoliation equipment is an important factor to measure the defoliation efficiency, and the tensile properties of mugwort petiole will have an impact on the defoliation quality, such as the crushing rate and the abscission rate. In order to reduce the crushing rate and improve the abscission rate during mechanical harvesting of mugwort leaves, the tensile properties of mugwort petiole need to be studied. The tensile properties of mugwort petiole are closely related to its macroscopic and microscopic physicochemical parameters.
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