In spite of their popularity in fulfilling aesthetic requirements, plastic brackets still present some disadvantages because of their low elastic modulus, decreased fracture toughness, and reduced wear resistance. Fibre-reinforced composites are well established in dentistry and consist of a polymer matrix in which reinforcing fibres are embedded. Stress is transferred from the polymer matrix t...

BaSO4 fibres with morphological complexity were formed in aqueous solution with polyacrylate and partially monophosphonated poly(ethyleneoxide)-block-poly(methacrylic acid) additives by a simple precipitation reaction. For polyacrylate, formation of the fibrous deposits was strongly dependent on the level of supersaturation (S) and Ba2+:polymer molar ratio (R). At S = 60 to 80, and R = 3 to 14,...

Preparation of microfibre constructs of collagen by electrospinning has been problematic due to the instability of collagen in volatile solvents, such as 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol, so that electrospinning leads to a substantial amount of gelatin fibres. In the present study we have demonstrated the production of collagen-based microfibre constructs by use of a layer-by-layer coating pro...

In self-lubricating sliding contact facilitated with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composites, the anisotropy in tribological performance was often attributed to oriented structures of polymer. However, this research, it is found that non-homogeneity introduced by hard fibres or stiffeners may be main contributor anisotropic polymeric composites. The interaction between non-uniformly arranged ...

Plant metabolic engineering has recently enabled the synthesis of a range of polyhydroxyalkanoates as well as a protein-based polymer. These novel compounds can be harvested from plants as a renewable source of environmentally friendly polymers or can be used to change the physical properties of plant products, such as fibres.

Structural, fibre reinforced, battery prototypes with two types of electrolyte matrix material, a gel and a solid polymer, have been manufactured. This was to confirm the concept of using carbon fibres as current collector in the anode as well as providing a mechanical load-carrying functionality. As a result, functioning batteries with gel electrolyte have been produced and their properties ha...

One of the dream reactions in polymer chemistry is the bottom-up, self-assembled synthesis of polymer fabrics, with interwoven, one-dimensional fibres of monomolecular thickness forming planar pieces of textiles. We have made a major step towards realizing this goal by assembling sophisticated, quadritopic linkers into surface-mounted metal-organic frameworks. By sandwiching these quadritopic l...

With the rapid development in nanoscience and nanotechnology, there is an ever increasing demand for polymer fibres of diameters down to a nanometre scale having multiple functionalities. Electrospinning, as a simple and efficient nanofibre-making technology, has been used to produce polymer nanofibres for diverse applications. Electrospun nanofibres based on polymer/carbon nanotube (CNT) compo...

The ability of additive manufacturing (AM) to produce structures with complex geometry has gained significant attention from researchers and fused deposition modelling remains a popular AM method fabricate layered structure using thermoplastic polymer. However, the application these materials limited prototyping because weak performance associated defects; porosity interfaces. Stronger composit...