Rheological properties, extrusion, fiber spinning, compression, and injection molding of blends of polycarbonate and two thermotropic liquid crystal polymers based on wholly aromatic copolyesters have been studied. Blends were prepared using an internal Banbury mixer and static Koch mixer. Based upon differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical measurements, these blends have been shown to be incompatible in the entire range of concentrations. During extrusion and injection molding at high strain rates, it has been observed that thermotropic liquid crystal polymer at concentrations 2.5, 5, and 10 percent by weight in situ forms high modulus and high strength fibers within the polycarbonate matrix leading to self‐reinforced polymer composites. The tensile strength of the composite containing 10 percent of liquid crystal polymer exceeds that of the pure components. In addition, anisotropy of properties of the injection molded parts has been found to substantially reduce in a comparison with that of liquid crystal polymer. The processing conditions and technique for the production of self‐reinforced polymer composite during processing of the blends have been identified. This has been done by measurements of mechanical properties, direct observation of morphology, and by theoretical calculation using simplified composite theory for the unidirectional continuous fiber‐reinforced composites. At the high concentrations, 25 and 50 percent by weight, thermotropic liquid crystal polymer forms large spherical droplets inside polycarbonate leading to highly brittle material. This is in distinction from the fibrous, high modulus tough composites formed at the lower concentrations.

Hernia repair is one of the most common operations in general surgery, and its associated complications typically relate to infections, among others. The loading of antibiotics to surgical meshes to deliver them locally in the abdominal hernia repair site can be one way to manage infections associated with surgical implants. However, the amount of drug loaded is restricted by the low wettability of polypropylene (PP). In this work, plasma has been used to tailor the surface properties of PP meshes to obtain high loading of ampicillin while conserving the desired biological properties of the unmodified samples and conferring them with antibacterial activity. It was demonstrated that the new surface chemistry and improved wettability led to 3-fold higher antibiotic loading. Subsequently, a PEG-like dry coating was deposited from tetraglyme with low-pressure plasma which allowed maintaining the high drug loading and kept cell properties such as chemotaxis, adhesion and morphology to the same levels as the untreated ones which have shown long-standing clinical success.

Fungal contamination of surfaces is a global burden, posing a major environmental and public health challenge. A wide variety of antifungal chemical agents are available; however, the side effects of the use of these disinfectants often result in the generation of toxic residues raising major environmental concerns. Herein, atmospheric pressure air plasma generated by a surface barrier discharge (SBD) is presented as an innovative green chemical method for fungal inactivation, with the potential to become an effective replacement for conventional chemical disinfection agents, such as Virkon. Using Aspergillus flavus spores as a target organism, a comparison of plasma based decontamination techniques is reported, highlighting their respective efficiencies and uncovering their underpining inactivation pathways. Tests were performed using both direct gaseous plasma treatment and an indirect treatment using a plasma activated aqueous broth solution (PAB). Concentrations of gaseous ozone and nitrogen oxides were determined with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Optical emission spectroscopy (OES), whereas hydrogen peroxides, nitrites, nitrates, and pH were measured in PAB. It is demonstrated that direct exposure to the gaseous plasma effluent exhibited superior decontamination efficiency and eliminated spores more effectively than Virkon, a finding attributed to the production of a wide variety of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species within the plasma.

Despite many important applications of α-Fe(2)O(3) and Fe doped SnO(2) in semiconductors, catalysis, sensors, clinical diagnosis and treatments, one fundamental issue that is crucial to these applications remains theoretically equivocal--the reversible carrier-type transition between n- and p-type conductivities during gas-sensing operations. Herein, we present an unambiguous and rigorous theoretical analysis in order to explain why and how the oxygen vacancies affect the n-type semiconductors α-Fe(2)O(3) and Fe-doped SnO(2), in which they are both electronically and chemically transformed into a p-type semiconductor. Furthermore, this reversible transition also occurs on the oxide surfaces during gas-sensing operation due to physisorbed gas molecules (without any chemical reaction). We make use of the ionization energy theory and its renormalized ionic displacement polarizability functional to reclassify, generalize and explain the concept of carrier-type transition in solids, and during gas-sensing operation. The origin of such a transition is associated with the change in ionic polarizability and the valence states of cations in the presence of oxygen vacancies and physisorped gas molecules.

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