1,721,004 research outputs found
Trends in Polyester Upcycling for Diversifying a Problematic Waste Stream
No full textFinancial support from the Flemish Government and Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) through the Moon-shot project CoRe2 (HBC2021.0583) is gratefully acknowl-edged
Combining hybrid hydrogels with peptide conjugation for targeted cartilage tissue engineering
No full textDegenerative diseases like osteoarthritis affect millions of people worldwide. Hybrid hydrogels are promising in tissue engineering applications as scaffolds for supporting native cartilage damaged from arthritis. Such gels can be designed and synthesized to be biocompatible and have outstanding mechanical properties, approaching the remarkable behavior associated with native cartilage tissue. However, further improvement in promoting tissue regeneration is needed. Previous work has shown that (poly)peptide-polymer conjugates can be tailored to promote cellular interactions. Integrating peptides into hybrid hydrogels in a controlled manner remains a formidable challenge. This is particularly true in gels that exhibit stimuli-responsive behavior (e.g., triggered gelation) and are thus amenable to relevant processing such as injection. This must be achieved while maintaining the necessary mechanical properties to support normal tissue function. This contribution focuses on hydrogel design using an adaptable hybrid, dual network synthetic scaffold whereby the building blocks are functionalized for specific attachment to peptides. The mechanical properties will be tuned to match those of native cartilage tissue. These results may pave the way toward dynamic materials which can be used to probe cellular interactions
Ionic crosslinking strategies for poly(acrylamide) /alginate hybrid hydrogels
Full text linkS.H. is grateful for funding from a BOF-OWB mandate under contract BOF19OWB08. L.M.P. is grateful for partial financial support from the Research Foundation -Flanders (FWO) under contract G080020N. The authors are highly appreciative of the support from undergraduate researcher Florence Scavone for generating some key samples for this study
Combining hybrid hydrogels with peptide conjugation for targeted cartilage tissue engineering
No full textDegenerative diseases like osteoarthritis affect millions of people worldwide. Hybrid hydrogels are promising in tissue engineering applications as scaffolds for supporting native cartilage damaged from arthritis. Such gels can be designed and synthesized to be biocompatible and have outstanding mechanical properties, approaching the remarkable behavior associated with native cartilage tissue. However, further improvement in promoting tissue regeneration is needed. Previous work has shown that (poly)peptide-polymer conjugates can be tailored to promote cellular interactions. Integrating peptides into hybrid hydrogels in a controlled manner remains a formidable challenge. This is particularly true in gels that exhibit stimuli-responsive behavior (e.g., triggered gelation) and are thus amenable to relevant processing such as injection. This must be achieved while maintaining the necessary mechanical properties to support normal tissue function. This contribution focuses on hydrogel design using an adaptable hybrid, dual network synthetic scaffold whereby the building blocks are functionalized for specific attachment to peptides. The mechanical properties will be tuned to match those of native cartilage tissue. These results may pave the way toward dynamic materials which can be used to probe cellular interactions
Bio-Based Upcycling of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Waste for the Preparation of High-Performance Thermoplastic Copolyesters
No full textThermoplastic copolyesters occupy an important segment in the materials market, finding use in a wide range of engineering plastic applications. This fact owes itself to the versatility underlying the synthetic preparation. However, the industry relies nearly exclusively on virgin feedstocks that are derived from fossil-based resources. With a keen interest in improving the deleterious environmental impact of this material class, we combine postconsumer recycled PET (rPET) with a bioderived dimer fatty acid (DFA) building block for the synthesis of segmented thermoplastic copolyesters (TPCs) via solvent-free melt polycondensation. The influence of (i) catalyst type, (ii) hard block (i.e., PET) precursor, and (iii) soft block (i.e., DFA) content on the microstructure and mechanical properties of TPCs was assessed. Samples that exhibit equivalent mechanical strength and segment distribution are accessible using either pristine bis-hydroxy ethylene terephthalate (BHET) or rPET as starting materials. Screening of reaction conditions and composition space within this context was performed with small-scale (2 g) reactions. Further optimization of reaction conditions in terms of catalyst concentration and ethylene glycol deconstruction agent content allowed for the upscaled synthesis (100 g) of engineering-grade TPCs in a custom-built reactor. We believe that our results contribute to a new paradigm in the efforts for more responsible manufacturing practices for TPCs and provide an additional outlet for the efficient handling of end-of-life, recyclable plastics.The authors greatly appreciate assistance from Greg Quintens (UHasselt) with SEC measurements. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Flemish Government and Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) through
the Moonshot project CoRe2 (HBC2019.0116). Partial support is also appreciated from Hasselt University and the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen) via the Hercules project AUHL/15/2-GOH3816N
Polymerizations in Continuous Flow: Recent Advances in the Synthesis of Diverse Polymeric Materials
No full textThe number of reports using continuous flow technology in tubular reactors to perform precision polymer-izations has grown enormously in recent years. Flow polymer-izations allow highly efficient preparation of polymers exhibiting well-defined molecular characteristics, and has been applied to a slew of monomers and various polymerization mechanisms, including anionic, cationic, radical, and ring-opening. Polymer-ization conducted in continuous flow offers several distinct advantages, including improved efficiency, reproducibility, and enhanced safety for exothermic polymerizations using highly toxic components, high pressures, and high temperatures. The further development of this technology is thus of relevance for many industrial polymerization processes. While much progress has been demonstrated in recent years, opportunities remain for increasing the compositional and architectural complexity of polymeric materials synthesized in a continuous fashion. Extending the reactor processing principles that have heretofore been focused on optimizing homopolymerization to include multisegment block copolymers, particularly from monomers that propagate via incompatible mechanisms, represents a major challenge and coveted target for continuous flow polymerization. Likewise, the spatial and temporal control of reactivity afforded by flow chemistry has and will continue to enable the production of complex polymeric architectures. This Viewpoint offers a brief background of continuous flow polymerization focused primarily on tubular (micro)reactors and includes selected examples that are relevant to these specific developments.Financial support for this work was provided by UHasselt startup funds and the National Science Foundation under the CAREER award (CHE-1847362)
Sequence-defined nucleobase containing oligomers via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer single monomer adition
No full textCombining hybrid hydrogels with peptide conjugation for targeted cartilage tissue engineering
No full textDegenerative diseases like osteoarthritis affect millions of people worldwide. Hybrid hydrogels are promising in tissue engineering applications as scaffolds for supporting native cartilage damaged from arthritis. Such gels can be designed and synthesized to be biocompatible and have outstanding mechanical properties, approaching the remarkable behavior associated with native cartilage tissue. However, further improvement in promoting tissue regeneration is needed. Previous work has shown that (poly)peptide-polymer conjugates can be tailored to promote cellular interactions. Integrating peptides into hybrid hydrogels in a controlled manner remains a formidable challenge. This is particularly true in gels that exhibit stimuli-responsive behavior (e.g., triggered gelation) and are thus amenable to relevant processing such as injection. This must be achieved while maintaining the necessary mechanical properties to support normal tissue function. This contribution focuses on hydrogel design using an adaptable hybrid, dual network synthetic scaffold whereby the building blocks are functionalized for specific attachment to peptides. The mechanical properties will be tuned to match those of native cartilage tissue. These results may pave the way toward dynamic materials which can be used to probe cellular interactions
Combining hybrid hydrogels with peptide conjugation for targeted cartilage tissue engineering
No full textDegenerative diseases like osteoarthritis affect millions of people worldwide. Hybrid hydrogels are promising in tissue engineering applications as scaffolds for supporting native cartilage damaged from arthritis. Such gels can be designed and synthesized to be biocompatible and have outstanding mechanical properties, approaching the remarkable behavior associated with native cartilage tissue. However, further improvement in promoting tissue regeneration is needed. Previous work has shown that (poly)peptide-polymer conjugates can be tailored to promote cellular interactions. Integrating peptides into hybrid hydrogels in a controlled manner remains a formidable challenge. This is particularly true in gels that exhibit stimuli-responsive behavior (e.g., triggered gelation) and are thus amenable to relevant processing such as injection. This must be achieved while maintaining the necessary mechanical properties to support normal tissue function. This contribution focuses on hydrogel design using an adaptable hybrid, dual network synthetic scaffold whereby the building blocks are functionalized for specific attachment to peptides. The mechanical properties will be tuned to match those of native cartilage tissue. These results may pave the way toward dynamic materials which can be used to probe cellular interactions
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