Current Applied Polymer Science - Online First
Description text for Online First listing goes here...
-
-
Polysaccharides from Nature to Technology: Grafting Techniques and their Applications
Authors: Hitendra Mahajan, Meghraj Suryawanshi, Rahul Sarode and Pranjal GujarathiAvailable online: 17 March 2025More LessPolysaccharides, naturally occurring and renewable biopolymers, have garnered significant attention due to their structural versatility and wide-ranging applications across the biomedical, pharmaceutical, and industrial sectors. This review explores the role of polysaccharides as excipients and their emerging importance in drug delivery systems, gene therapy, tissue engineering, medical implants, and biosensing. With detailed insights into their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties, the review highlights the significance of polysaccharides, such as chitosan, alginates, cellulose, hyaluronic acid, pullulans, and xanthan gum, in developing advanced biomaterials. Various grafting techniques, including chemical and physical methods, are examined for their potential to modify surface properties and enhance biocompatibility, targeting ability, and mechanical strength. Despite the promising biomedical applications, challenges persist in optimizing grafting techniques, ensuring biocompatibility, and overcoming regulatory hurdles. This review also enlightens the current market potential of polysaccharides, emphasizing the growing demand for natural and plant-based materials. Future directions should focus on enhancing the scalability of production, improving chemical modification processes, and addressing technical limitations in tissue engineering applications.
-
-
-
Semi-Empirical Analysis of Polyamide 11 Hybrid Composites: Unveiling the Journey from Simple Models to Complex Theories
Authors: Shaghayegh Armioun, Jimi Tjong and Mohini SainAvailable online: 18 February 2025More LessIntroductionPredicting the properties of hybrid composites is challenging due to their mechanical and thermal heterogeneity, anisotropy, and complex microstructures. This has led to the development of various theoretical models, each tailored to assess specific microstructures and optimize material properties for targeted applications.
MethodsThe present paper presents a semi-empirical analysis of hybrid Polyamide 11 (PA11) composites reinforced with wood and carbon fibers. To predict the tensile modulus of natural fiber composites, methods such as ROM, IROM, Halpin-Tsai, Halpin-Tsai for random fiber orientations, and shear lag model equations were employed and accordingly modified. Employing the “effective matrix” approach, the modified single fiber system equations were further employed for hybrid fiber systems. The HROM, Halpin-Tsai, Halpin-Tsai for random fiber orientations, Halpin-Tsai for hybrid composites, and shear lag model equations were applied and modified for hybrid composites.
Results and DiscussionThe Halpin-Tsai equations for randomly distributed fibers demonstrated the highest level of agreement with the experimental findings. The best-fit values for λL (longitudinal direction) and λT (Transverse direction) for randomly distributed fibers in Halpin-Tsai models were 0.372 and 0.568. These values were in excellent agreement with the original Halpin-Tsai equations for randomly dispersed fibers, which are reported as 0.375 and 0.625, respectively. Similarly, the experimental findings strongly correlate with the Halpin-Tsai equations for hybrid composites documented in the literature. Furthermore, this study effectively derived and employed modified equations from several micromechanical models to accurately predict the tensile modulus for single and hybrid fiber-reinforced composites.
ConclusionHybrid composites of PA11 reinforced with natural and carbon fibers represent a promising approach for sustainable, high-performance materials. This study's experimental results closely align with several established micromechanical models, including the Halpin-Tsai model for both randomly distributed short fibers and hybrid composites. Additionally, existing models for single-fiber composites, such as ROM and shear lag theory, were effectively modified to match the study's experimental data. These modifications accounted for fiber misalignment, inadequate fiber-matrix interaction, fiber breakage, and natural fiber degradation. The modified models' predicted moduli were consistent with the experimental findings for both single-fiber and hybrid systems.
-
-
-
Applications of Polymers in Biosensors-based Medical Devices
Authors: Ekta Khare and Swarnim SrivastavaAvailable online: 12 February 2025More LessA biosensor-based medical device refers to a device that integrates polymers to detect and measure specific biomolecules for the treatment of disease. Biosensors are now widely used in biological diagnostics and a wide range of other sectors, such as disease treatment and progression tracking, environmental and agricultural monitoring, food safety, drug development, and biomedical and forensics research. This may be the result of concurrent developments in transdisciplinary research, microelectronics technology development, and polymer chemistry. This review summarizes the significance of polymeric materials in contemporary diagnostic techniques employed in healthcare. The study examines polymeric material advancements in the design and manufacture of biosensing agents, substrates, and components, with a focus on contemporary biosensor platforms in biosensing health and disease applications, along with their drawbacks.
-