Severe wounds in biological systems such as human skin cannot heal themselves, unless they are first stitched together. Healing of macroscopic damage in thermoset polymer composites faces a similar challenge. Stimuli-responsive shape-changing polymeric fibres with outstanding mechanical properties embedded in polymers may be able to close macro-cracks automatically upon stimulation such as heat...

Skeletal muscle repair is often overlooked in surgical procedures and in serious burn victims. Creating a tissue-engineered skeletal muscle would not only provide a grafting material for these clinical situations, but could also be used as a valuable true-to-life research tool into diseases affecting muscle tissue. Electrospinning of the elastomer PLGA produced aligned fibres that had the corre...

Electrospinning uses electrical forces to produce polymer fibres with nanometre-scale diameters. Electrospinning occurs when the electrical forces at the surface of a polymer solution or melt overcome the surface tension and cause an electrically charged jet to be ejected. When the jet dries or solidifies, an electrically charged fibre remains. This charged fibre can be directed or accelerated ...

Unlike conventional Polymer Optical Fibre (POF), single -mode Microstructured Polymer Optical Fibre (MPOF) can easily be fabricated, as required for many nonlinear applications. It was demonstrated that tungsten electrodes for poling and measuring the electro -optic coefficient could be incorporated in the PMMA fibre during the draw process. Lengths of up to 70m of this fibre were produced. For...

In this work, polyamide 11 (PA11) and stone ground wood fibres (SGW) were used, as an alternative to non-bio-based polymer matrices and reinforcements, to obtain short fibre reinforced composites. The impact of the reinforcement on the thermal degradation, thermal transitions and microstructure of PA11-based composites were studied. Natural fibres have lower degradation temperatures than PA11, ...

In 2007, research was carried out to determine the type and amount of asbestos fibers in a Croatian factory with a long history of making asbestos-containing products.Since the 1970s, asbestos fibres have been considered carcinogenic in humans i.e as a known cancer-causing agent. In the environment, asbestos fibres are inactive and naturally resist biodegradation. In time, fibres can only be gr...

Natural-fibre-reinforced polymer composites are most commonly employed in the automotive, aerospace and structural industries. This research focuses on synthesis analysis of dynamic properties a bamboo fibre used with polyester matrix nanocomposite produced titanium oxide nanoparticles. Bamboo-fibre samples were prepared using electroless plating method both their uncoated nickel-phosphorus-coa...

The microstructure and thermomechanical behaviour of a novel fully biodegradable polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH)-based single-polymer composite (SPC) is presented. Three kinds of PVOH stapled fibres, having different melting temperatures and tensile mechanical properties, were considered as a reinforcement, whilst plasticized PVOH granules were selected as a continuous matrix. Calorimetric tests on th...

The current research determines the most recent developments in natural fibres reinforced polylactic acid composites. Polylactic (PLA) is derived from renewable resources and capable of degrading microorganisms, eliminating pollution caused by petrochemical-based plastic. PLA promising biodegradable material among polymers since it easily attacked bacteria decomposes easily, releasing H2O, CO2,...

Morphologies featured in bicomponent 2D ultrathin films were reproduced on 3D non-woven microfibre structures. Fibre networks were constructed by electrospinning hydrophobised cellulose derivatives, trimethylsilyl cellulose (TMSC) and cellulose triacetate (CTA), dissolved in a common solvent. Diverse morphologies were obtained depending on the polymer blend ratio: electrospinning of TMSC produc...