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Nobody who knows Nico Omenetto will believe that he is going to celebrate his 75th birthday on November 12 this year. There has to be a special elixir which keeps him going strong, enthusiastic and positive. It is certainly his wife Mariella and his son Fiorenzo with family, but also his love for scientific research and teaching. All of us, the spectrochemical community, have benefited from the great enthusiasm which he has invested in finessing the jounal Spectrochimica Acta, Part B for 20 years, spending numerous hours of his free time in handling manuscripts as mediator between authors and referees. We are grateful for his continuous, dedicated commitment to a journal which we all admire. The great appreciation of his colleagues can be observed from the universal support for this Special Issue on behalf of his upcoming birthday. All who were asked immediately agreed to submit contributions.
Starch is one of the most common and easily obtained natural polymers, making it attractive as a potential bio-based alternative to synthetic polymers. This study shows that a simple quaternary ammonium salt combined with urea or glycols forms effective modifiers that produce flexible plastics with good mechanical properties that are comparable to some polyolefin plastics. The processing conditions are shown to significantly affect the structure of the polymer which has a concomitant effect upon the mechanical and physical properties of the resulting plastic. Using a glycerol based modifier results in a totally sustainable and biodegradable material which can be injection moulded.
The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) DocCenter has received more and more reports of cases of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, some even with fatal outcomes after indoor use of charcoal grills. CO is odorless, colorless, non-irritant and does not produce any other warning effect perceptible to humans. The BfR and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) have completed a cooperative research project to investigate the toxic concentrations of CO that are reached when charcoal grills or open fires are used indoors.
Multifunctional composites which can fulfil more than one role within a system have attracted considerable interest. This work focusses on structural supercapacitors which simultaneously carry mechanical load whilst storing/delivering electrical energy. Critical mechanical properties (in-plane shear and in-plane compression performance) of two monofunctional and four multifunctional materials were characterised, which gave an insight into the relationships between these properties, the microstructures and fracture processes. The reinforcements included baseline T300 fabric, which was then either grafted or sized with carbon nanotubes, whilst the baseline matrix was MTM57, which was blended with ionic liquid and lithium salt (two concentrations) to imbue multifunctionality. The resulting composites exhibited a high degree of matrix heterogeneity, with the ionic liquid phase preferentially forming at the fibres, resulting in poor matrix-dominated properties. However, fibre-dominated properties were not depressed. Thus, it was demonstrated that these materials can now offer weight savings over conventional monofunctional systems when under modest loading.
Structural electrolytes were prepared using a fully formulated commercially available high performance epoxy resin (MTM57) and an ionic liquid based electrolyte: lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) dissolved in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (EMIM-TFSI). Through a systematic study, the composition of the formulations was found to have a greater effect than the curing temperature on the morphology and properties of the resulting structural electrolytes. The presence of lithium salt is essential to form a structurally homogeneous electrolyte. Bicontinuous morphologies containing continuous (coarse) epoxy networks surrounded by connected spherical epoxy nodules were obtained with different length scales upon varying the lithium salt concentration. Increasing the LiTFSI concentration improved the miscibility of MTM57 with the electrolyte and decreased the characteristic length scale of the resulting bicontinuous microstructure. The properties of the structural electrolytes correlated with the morphology, showing increased Youngs modulus and decreased ionic conductivity with increasing lithium salt concentration. The miscibility of the epoxy system with the electrolyte was also improved by substitution of EMIM-TFSI with an equal weight of an aprotic organic solvent, propylene carbonate (PC); however, the window of PC concentrations which resulted in structural electrolytes with bicontinuous microstructures was very narrow; at PC concentrations above 1 wt %, gel-like polymers with no permanent mesoporosity were obtained.
Carbohydrate functionalization of silver nanoparticles modulates cytotoxicity and cellular uptake
(2014)
Background
Increasing use of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) in various products is resulting in a greater likelihood of human exposure to these materials. Nevertheless, little is still known about the influence of carbohydrates on the toxicity and cellular uptake of nanoparticles.
Methods
Ag-NPs functionalized with three different monosaccharides and ethylene glycol were synthesized and characterised. Oxidative stress and toxicity was evaluated by protein carbonylation and MTT assay, respectively. Cellular uptake was evaluated by confocal microscopy and ICP-MS.
Results
Ag-NPs coated with galactose and mannose were considerably less toxic to neuronal-like cells and hepatocytes compared to particles functionalized by glucose, ethylene glycol or citrate. Toxicity correlated to oxidative stress but not to cellular uptake.
Conclusions
Carbohydrate coating on silver nanoparticles modulates both oxidative stress and cellular uptake, but mainly the first has an impact on toxicity. These findings provide new perspectives on modulating the bioactivity of Ag-NPs by using carbohydrates.
The capabilities of non-destructive testing (NDT) methods for defect detection in civil engineering are characterized by their different penetration depth, resolution and sensitivity to material properties. Therefore, in many cases multi-sensor NDT has to be performed, producing large data sets that require an efficient data evaluation framework. In this work an image fusion methodology is proposed based on unsupervised clustering methods. Their performance is evaluated on ground penetrating radar and infrared thermography data from laboratory concrete specimens with different simulated near-surface defects. It is shown that clustering could effectively partition the data for further feature level-based data fusion by improving the detectability of defects simulating delamination, voids and localized water. A comparison with supervised symbol level fusion shows that clustering-based fusion outperforms this, especially in situations with very limited knowledge about the material properties and depths of the defects. Additionally, clustering is successfully applied in a case study where a multi-sensor NDT data set was automatically collected by a self-navigating mobile robot system.
The paper 'The constituents of the ink from a Qumran inkwell: New prospects for provenancing the ink on the Dead Sea Scrolls' by Rasmussen et al. (2012) presents an account of the analysis of a residue from an unprovenanced inkwell. In this comment, I reassess their study and offer alternative interpretations of their experimental results.
Trans-European corridors for transport of people and goods require strengthening of bridges to carry increased axle loads in terms of absolute axle loads and of their frequency. Most of the bridges along highways are reinforced or prestressed concrete bridges.
Since the late 1990s, CFRP laminates have been applied to box girder and T-beam bridges to increase the overall capacity. Although regular inspections are carried out, no special method was available to test the bond condition of CFRP laminates after being in Service for more than ten years. The German Center of Competence in Civil Engineering is aware of this need and funded a research project to investigate the bond condition by means of advanced non-destructive testing (NDT).
Der Untersuchung von vorgespannten Brückenplatten bzw. Fahrbahnplatten kommt angesichts ihrer direkten Belastung durch Verkehr und der Gefahr durch Tausalzeintrag infolge von Schäden an der Abdichtung eine tragende Rolle bei der Planung von Instandsetzungsarbeiten zu. Da diese Bauteile direkt befahren werden, ist der Einsatz zerstörungsfreier Prüfverfahren (ZfPBau-Verfahren) sinnvoll, wobei deren Anwendung nur einen begrenzten Eingriff in den Verkehr verursachen sollte. In diesem Beitrag werden neben dem großflächigen Einsatz von Radar von der Brückenoberseite aus, d. h. durch den Fahrbahnbelag hindurch, Detailuntersuchungen von der Brückenunterseite mithilfe von Bauwerkscannern beschrieben. Diese Scanner verwenden sowohl Radar als auch Ultraschall mit ihren komplementären Verfahrenseigenschaften, wobei deren Möglichkeiten und Grenzen aufgezeigt werden. Abschließend wird eine Strategie zur Kombination von ZfPBau-Verfahren sowie deren gezielter großflächiger Einsatz in Abgrenzung zu kleinflächigen Detailuntersuchungen beschrieben.