A new approach to flow battery design is demonstrated wherein diffusion-limited aggregation of nanoscale conductor particles at ∼1 vol % concentration is used to impart mixed electronic-ionic conductivity to redox solutions, forming flow electrodes with embedded current collector networks that self-heal after shear. Lithium polysulfide flow cathodes of this architecture exhibit electrochemical ...

The viscoelastic properties of nine silicone-, polysulfide-, and polyether-based impression materials were determined using creep tests. During deformation the materials demonstrated linear viscoelastic behavior. The creep compliance curves, recovery, and percent set were calculated. Permanent deformation in these materials is a result of lack of recovery of elastic deformation as well as visco...

Tertiary amine-modified corn starches were converted to their basic or hydroxide form and combined with carboxylated butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymer and butadiene-styrene-sulfonic acid polymer to produce ionically bonded filler-elastomer composites. An increasing percentage of the elastomer fraction in the starch-elastomer composite is insolubilized as the starch-to-elastomer ratio increases....

The purpose of this research was to investigate if physical properties could be improved by incorporating a tulle reinforcement material into a maxillofacial silicone elastomer. A-2186 silicone elastomer was used in this study. The study group consisted of 20 elastomer specimens incorporated with tulle and fabricated in dumbbell-shaped silicone patterns using ASTM D412 and D624 standards. The c...

This paper presents our studies on surface modification of silicone elastomer by collagen grafting/coating and electron beam irradiation. Two types of collagen hydrolysates with different molecular weights were obtained and characterized, which were used in experiments. Both silicone elastomer crosslinking and collagen grafting on the surface of silicone elastomer were achieved by electron beam...

The effects of accelerated aging on a pigmented elastomer were evaluated by using a weathering chamber. Silastic 44210, a maxillofacial material with proven color and physical property stability, was chosen for pigmentation with 11 maxillofacial pigments. The values of ultimate tensile strength, maximum percent elongation, shear strength, Shore A hardness, and permanent deformation were determi...

The effect of methanol content in water based polysulfide electrolytes in TiO(2)/CdS/CdSe quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) prepared by the SILAR method was studied. In addition, the effect of coating the mesoporous QD sensitized films with ZnS outer layers was investigated. Charge recombination reactions were measured using time resolved spectroscopic measurements. These studies reve...

To improve the treatments for low back pain, new designs of total disk replacement have been proposed. The question is how well these designs can act as a functional replacement of the intervertebral disk. Four finite element models were made, for four different design concepts, to determine how well they can mimic the physiological intervertebral disk mechanical function. The four designs were...

A recent design of deformable lens mimics the human eye, adjusting its focal length in response to muscle-like actuation. The artificial muscle is a membrane of a dielectric elastomer subject to a voltage. Here, we calculate the coupled and inhomogeneous deformation of the lens and the dielectric elastomer actuator by formulating a nonlinear boundary-value problem. We characterize the strain-st...