A hand-held corona treater is presented as an effective, inexpensive, and portable alternative for irreversible bonding of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to glass.

In the present study, a simple and sensitive methodology based on dynamic headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by thermal desorption gas chromatography with quadrupole mass detection (GC-qMSD), was developed and optimized for the determination of volatile (VOCs) and semi-volatile (SVOCs) compounds from different alcoholic beverages: wine, beer and whisky. Key experimental fa...

The impeding effect of plant surfaces covered with three-dimensional wax on attachment and locomotion of insects has been shown previously in numerous experimental studies. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of different parameters of crystalline wax coverage on insect attachment. We performed traction experiments with the beetle Coccinella septempunctata and pull-off force measure...

The solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique was applied and optimized for collection of volatile compounds emitted from oestrous urine of mares Equs cabalus L. (Perissodactyla, Equidae) for GC-MS analyses. Variables such as type of SPME fibre, collection time of volatiles, and addition of salt were optimized to improve the sampling efficiency in two aspects: extent and selectivity of absor...

Supercooling is suppressed in liquid metal polydimethylsiloxane composites for the first time.

Volatile losses were measured from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) passive samplers during determination of contaminant porewater concentrations in sediments. Volatile losses could occur between the time of retrieval and processing of the passive sampler or in intertidal environments where the passive sampler could potentially be exposed above the water surface at low tide. A model was developed to...

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is nearly ubiquitous in microfluidic devices, being easy to work with, economical, and transparent. A detailed protocol is provided here for using PDMS in the fabrication of microfluidic devices to aid those interested in using the material in their work, with information on the many potential ways the material may be used for novel devices.

Polymers that respond in a productive fashion to their environment are under active development as they offer significant advantages over traditional materials. For example, polymers with the ability to self-heal and recover a significant fraction of their initial properties after being subjected to a damage event are of significant interest. Here we study the effect of healing agent viscosity ...

One-dimensional magnetic nanowires have been introduced into polydimethylsiloxane PDMS to form polymer based nanocomposites. In contrast to the conventional nanofillers such as carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, nanoparticles, and layer-structured materials, these well-defined anisotropic metallic nanowires are highly conductive and have much weaker van der Waals interactions. Moreover, compo...