Nosocomial infections affect implanted medical devices and greatly challenge their functional outcomes,becoming sometimes life threatening for the patients.Therefore,aggressive antibiotic therapies are administered,wh...Nosocomial infections affect implanted medical devices and greatly challenge their functional outcomes,becoming sometimes life threatening for the patients.Therefore,aggressive antibiotic therapies are administered,which often require the use of last-resort drugs,if the infection is caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria.Reducing the risk of bacterial contamination of medical devices in the hospitals has thus become an emerging issue.Promising routes to control these infections are based on materials provided with intrinsic bactericidal properties(i.e.,chemical action)and on the design of surface coatings able to limit bacteria adhesion and fouling phenomena(i.e.,physical action),thus preventing bacterial biofilm formation.Here,we report the development and validation of coatings made of layer-by-layer deposition of electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoro ethylene)P(VDF-TrFE)fibers with controlled orientations,which ultimately gave rise to antifouling surfaces.The obtained 10-layer surface morphology with 90°orientation fibers was able to efficiently prevent the adhesion of bacteria,by establishing a superhydrophobic-like behavior compatible with the Cassie-Baxter regimen.Moreover,the results highlighted that surface wettability and bacteria adhesion could be controlled using fibers with diameter comparable to bacteria size(i.e.,achievable via electrospinning process),by tuning the intra-fiber spacing,with relevant implications in the future design of biomedical surface coatings.展开更多
The relationship between property and structure of poly( p-phenylene terephthalamide)( PPTA) was investigated for the purpose of obtaining products with better performance. PPTA fiber subjected to heat treatment under...The relationship between property and structure of poly( p-phenylene terephthalamide)( PPTA) was investigated for the purpose of obtaining products with better performance. PPTA fiber subjected to heat treatment under different conditions was intensively studied. Simultaneous wide-angle X-ray diffraction( WAXD) technique was introduced to study the changes of crystal structure. It was found that the tensile modulus was strongly sensitive to the levels of temperature and tension. The structure parameters including crystal size and crystal orientation after heat treatment evolve similarly to the tensile modulus,indicating a direct structure-property relationship. The lattic c-dimension increases after heat treatment and is greatly affected by the tension. An optimal temperature can be found around 400 ℃,where big change can happen in the crystal structure due to α-relaxation in the crystal region as supported in dynamic mechanical analysis( DMA).展开更多
文摘Nosocomial infections affect implanted medical devices and greatly challenge their functional outcomes,becoming sometimes life threatening for the patients.Therefore,aggressive antibiotic therapies are administered,which often require the use of last-resort drugs,if the infection is caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria.Reducing the risk of bacterial contamination of medical devices in the hospitals has thus become an emerging issue.Promising routes to control these infections are based on materials provided with intrinsic bactericidal properties(i.e.,chemical action)and on the design of surface coatings able to limit bacteria adhesion and fouling phenomena(i.e.,physical action),thus preventing bacterial biofilm formation.Here,we report the development and validation of coatings made of layer-by-layer deposition of electrospun poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-trifluoro ethylene)P(VDF-TrFE)fibers with controlled orientations,which ultimately gave rise to antifouling surfaces.The obtained 10-layer surface morphology with 90°orientation fibers was able to efficiently prevent the adhesion of bacteria,by establishing a superhydrophobic-like behavior compatible with the Cassie-Baxter regimen.Moreover,the results highlighted that surface wettability and bacteria adhesion could be controlled using fibers with diameter comparable to bacteria size(i.e.,achievable via electrospinning process),by tuning the intra-fiber spacing,with relevant implications in the future design of biomedical surface coatings.
基金National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program)(No.2011CB606103)National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China(863 Program)(No.2012AA03212)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,China(No.11D10625)
文摘The relationship between property and structure of poly( p-phenylene terephthalamide)( PPTA) was investigated for the purpose of obtaining products with better performance. PPTA fiber subjected to heat treatment under different conditions was intensively studied. Simultaneous wide-angle X-ray diffraction( WAXD) technique was introduced to study the changes of crystal structure. It was found that the tensile modulus was strongly sensitive to the levels of temperature and tension. The structure parameters including crystal size and crystal orientation after heat treatment evolve similarly to the tensile modulus,indicating a direct structure-property relationship. The lattic c-dimension increases after heat treatment and is greatly affected by the tension. An optimal temperature can be found around 400 ℃,where big change can happen in the crystal structure due to α-relaxation in the crystal region as supported in dynamic mechanical analysis( DMA).
