Summary Melamine‐formaldehyde foam possesses intrinsic flame retardance; however, relative poor thermal stability and a certain amount of heat release rate restrict its applications in heated environment to a degree. In the present research, sol‐gel method has been adopted to precipitate nano‐SiO2 particles on the surface of the melamine‐formaldehyde foam's fibers to construct a protective inorganic gel layer. Taking advantages of the shielding effects of the gel layer, the thermal‐oxygen degradation of the foam can be greatly retarded during heating; hence, the thermal stability is remarkably improved, and the flame retardance is further enhanced. In addition, introducing a small amount of membrane‐forming agent in the sol‐gel system can make the depositional nano‐SiO2 particles well adhered to avoid dusting.

A micropipette aspiration technique was adopted to investigate the viscoelastic properties of phagocytes of arteriosclerotic origin. A standard linear solid model was employed to fit the experimental data and three viscoelastic coefficients were used to compare the mechanical properties of the phagocytes in different phases during arteriosclerostic development. The experimental results indicated that prior to the formation of arteriosclerosis, the mobility and deformability of the marcopahges matured from monocytes decreased, and their rigidity increased. At the initial stage of arteriosclerosis formation, the mobility and deformability of the foam-cells further decreased. This finding may have important implication in the research field of arteriosclerosis.

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