Environmentally responsive, water-soluble polymers have a wide variety of uses ranging from drug delivery to viscosity modifiers. Their utility lies in the ability to use environmental perturbations to dramatically alter the material properties. Here, we describe the interfacial properties of a hydrophobically modified copolymer of N-isopropylacrylamide and glycinylacrylamide (NIPAM-N-Gly-(C18)...

Adhesion (cohesion) and agglomeration properties of gas hydrate particles have been a key to hydrate management in flow assurance in natural gas pipelines. Despite its importance, the relevant data in the area, such as the surface energy and the interfacial energy of gas hydrates with gas and/or water, are scarce; presumably due to the experimental difficulties involved in the measurements. Her...

To illustrate the effects of nano-bamboo charcoal (NBC) on the properties of bamboo plastic composites (BPC), nano-bamboo charcoalbamboo plastic composites (NBC-BPC) were prepared at 0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%, and 12.5% (w/v) NBC and characterized. The effects of NBC on the water absorption, fractured surfaces, mechanical properties, and thermal properties of the composites were investigated. NBC...

The objective of this work is to develop bioactive glass coatings for metallic orthopedic implants. A new family of glasses in the SiO2–Na2O–K2O–CaO–MgO–P2O5 system has been synthesized and characterized. The glass properties (thermal expansion, softening and transformation temperatures, density and hardness) are in line with the predictions of established empirical models. The optimized firing...

Achieving weight reduction in lightweight structural and protection applications, multi-material assemblies are being proposed in several applications ranging from tactical wheeled vehicles, rotorcraft, and munitions. Adhesive bonding of dissimilar materials found in these systems is a critical technology in the production of lightweight energy absorbing structures. The design and control of th...

Within the heterogeneous architecture of tumour tissue there exists an elusive population of stem-like cells that are implicated in both recurrence and metastasis. Here, by using engineered extracellular matrices, we show that geometric features at the perimeter of tumour tissue will prime a population of cells with a stem-cell-like phenotype. These cells show characteristics of cancer stem cel...