Sharif Digital Repository

In recent years the rapid rise of polymer consumption especially in the form of packaging materials became a real menace for the environment. Polyolefin are some of the most dominant packaging materials and responsible by part of the problems in the disposal of one-trip packaging. One of the possible ways of solving this problem is the introduction of additives increasing their susceptibility to environmental degradation into non-biodegradable polymers. One such additive is starch- the natural, cheap, and easily biodegradable polymer. Starch was already used as a filler or as a blend with polyolefin. Addition of dry starch granules to polyolefin follows the general trend of filler effects on... 

Biodegradation has always been as a proper method for treatment of oil contamination. Accordingly, several investigations have been done by mesophilic bacteria for biodegradation of hydrocarbons while few studies have been conducted about thermophilic bacteria.
There are many factors like high growth rate of thermophilic bacteria and good resistance of enzymes secreted from thermophiles against physical and chemical variations lead to the extensive use of thermophilic bacteria for removal of oil contamination. The important factors should be optimized in order to choose a suitable method for the removal of oil contaminations. Optimal conditions for oil contamination removal by... 

Due to the negative effects of conventional plastics on the enviroment, especially in the packaging sector, extensive efforts have been put to replace these polymers with biodegradable polymers. Starch is one of the biodegradable polymers which has attracted a lot of attentions because of low cost and good processability. Native starch has the form of granule and can be processed to a continuous phase after gelatinization in the presence of a plasticizer. The resulting material is a biodegradable plastic-like material called thermoplastic starch (TPS) which is processed using conventional technologies, but suffers from low mechanical properties and high hydrophilicity. Addition of natural... 

Magnesium and its alloys have been used as biodegradable implements in recent years. However Magnesium implements may corrode in the body before the natural healing process of the damaged tissue. MAO process was studied in order to reduce primary corrosion of Magnesium alloy in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF). MAO coating was created on AZ31 alloy in a nontoxic alkaline-silicate solution at DC current densities of 5, 10, 15 and 20 mA/cm2 for 30 minutes and the current was in form of 20-10-5 mA/cm2 steps that each were applied for 10 minutes. The maximum corrosion resistance was observed for the mentioned step applied current in a 30g/l Sodium Silicate solution. Furthermore the effects of adding... 

The aim of the present research is to analyse feasibility study of manufacturing the disposable (Biodegradable) plant containers in Iran. The population of the research consists of the whole capacity for manufacturing this product and the similar product producers which have been registered in the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Commerce. First, in this research, the environmental and anti-environmental impacts of non-plant Disposable Containers like: plastic, foam, paper and aluminum have been discussed and also their disadvantages have been examined to be compared with advantages of using plant Disposable Containers. Thereafter, collecting the required data about today society and market,... 

Nerve repair plays a very prominent and significant role among the efforts that have been made to integrate the concepts of tissue engineering in strategies to repair almost all parts of the body. This is partly due to the complexity of the nervous anatomy system and its function as well as the inefficiency of conventional repair methods that are based on a component of biomaterials or cells alone. Studies show that electrical stimulation can enhance the nerve regeneration process; so the use of conducting polymers has attracted much attention for the construction of neural tissue engineering scaffolds. In this study, the electrical properties of neurons and the effects of electrical... 

Due to their favorable biodegradability, Magnesium and its alloys have always attracted such a lot of research interests for making temporary implants. With the same direction, Mg-4Zn-0.2Ca has recently absorbed lots of research interests, due to its excellent biocompatibility. As the most regarded draw back concerned with this alloy, poor corrosion resistance is frequently discussed. Accordingly, in the present work it has been tried to come over this problem by addition different amount of aluminum, including 1, 3, 5, 7.5, and 10 percent, to this alloy; without causing any negative effect on its biocompatibility, and to present a new alloy composition with modified degradation behavior.... 

With the increasing population and expanding urbanization and changing consumption patterns and relative prosperity increases, the amount of waste generated has increased significantly. So the municipal waste management as one of the challenges that lie ahead for municipal and state has become. Therefore, different approaches have been proposed to solve this problem. In the past government used landfill or incineration program for waste management. Given the risks to the environment and human health are two ways to create and large amount of biodegradable solid waste, composting seems to be good approach for waste management. With using the process on an industrial scale by municipalities,... 

Recently, due to the increase of environmental concerns, a significant raise in applying films and packaging containers, pollution produced from petroleum-based plastics packaging and problems arising from the various methods of waste disposal, the researchers have concentrate to replace these materials with biodegradable ones. In this study, a nanocomposite based on alloy matrix of thermoplastic starch and polyethylene which is reinforced with different amounts of Montmorillonitenanoclay has been constructed by the extrusion process. Furthermore, in order to increase the compatibility between the polar and non-polar components in the group of samples, compatibilizer was used and its... 

In recent years, magnesium and its alloys have been considered as biodegradable implants, but they corrode in the body before natural process of damaged organs recovery is completed. In this investigation PEO operation was used for corrosion control and effect of different parameter such as number of operation steps, electrolyte type, time and operation voltage on coating properties was studied. Scanning electron microscopy was used for investigating of morphology of coats and to determine chemical composition and phase of coats EDS analysis and X-ray diffraction were used. The corrosion resistance of samples were evaluated by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance (EIS)... 

Biocompatible porous polymeric scaffolds provide a suitable 3-D environment for proliferation of stem cells in human body. For instance, growth and proliferation concurrent with differentiation of stem cells in such scaffolds can regenerate the tissues or organs. In this attitude we fabricated a porous Gelatin-based scaffold using both of freeze-drying and freeze-extraction methods.Also, effect fo gamma irradiation on microstructure of scaffolds was investigated. In addition, poly(ethylene glycol) was employed to make the scaffold softer. Moreover, effects of various parameters including freezing temperature, cross-linking agent concentration, gelatin and PEG concentrations and their... 

Platelet nanoparticles could dramatically decrease permeability of polymeric film where increase considerably its physical -mechanical properties. Bio based (Biodegradable) polymeric materials such as starch based polymeric films show very weak mechanical and high oxygen and water vapor permeability. Graphene oxide (GO) could increase mechanical properties of starch based polymer where decrease its permeability dramatically. Addition of chitosan also could increase antibacterial and antifungal of films and decrease permeability of films considerably. In this research nanocomposite of Starch/Chitosan/GO films have been prepared by solution method and its morphology, permeability, physical... 

Treatment of critical-size bone defects caused by sport injuries, accidents, trauma, infection, and osteoporosis remains a major clinical challenge. In order to repair or regenerate large bone defects, bioactive three-dimensional scaffolds play a key role due to their multilevel porous structure, high surface area, enhanced mass transport and diffusion. Many studies reported that macropore diameters greater than 500 µm can lead to vascularized bone tissue. In this study, a hierarchically porous composite scaffold was prepared. Hierarchically porous silk fibroin- bioactive glass composite and fibroin scaffold were fabricated with controlled architecture and interconnected structure with... 

Properties of biomaterials, especially in application as planting, can be controlled and optimized by alloying and hardening sedimentation. In recent years, the study on the simultaneous improvement of mechanical properties, toughness and corrosion behavior of magnesium composite by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is very limited. In this study, the behavior of mechanical properties and corrosion of magnesium alloy composites with different percentages of CNTs have been investigated. The production of magnesium alloy composite by powder metallurgy and aging process have been used as effective methods for improving mechanical properties and increasing the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys. For... 

Nowadays, the research of biodegradable alloys with high corrosion and strength properties, along with a modulus of elasticity close to that of bone tissue, especially the magnesium alloys, which has a good biocompatibility and can be used as a biomedical material, has been considered by the medical industry. On the other hand, carbon nanotubes have been used as an reinforcing phase in composites due to their high mechanical properties. The aim of this project is to produce a biocompatible composite with magnesium alloy and carbon nanotube by powder metallurgy. In order to achieve this, first the raw powder of the alloying elements in the matrix without reinforcement and then with weight... 

It is known that Fluoride ions strongly affect bone mineralization and formation. In the present study, the engineered bone tissue scaffolds are fabricated using silk fibroin (SF) and flouridated TiO2 nanoparticles. TiO2 nanoparticles are modified by fluoride ions, and different levels (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.%) of the fluoridated TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2-F) were subsequently added to the SF matrix through phase separation method to prepare silk fibroin/flouridated TiO2 nanocomposite scaffolds (SF/TiO2-F). Phase structure, functinal groups, morphology and mechanical properties of the obtained scaffolds were evaluated by X-ray difraction method (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy... 

In this project, all-cellulose nanocomposites for smart packaging of meat products were synthesized via film casing method. These nanocomposites were aimed to provide visual response to pH change, which occurs due to decay of the meat products. The prepared nanocomposites would be placed inside the packages to be in direct contact with the products and could improve shelf life the products with the help of antibacterial natural extracts incorporated in the samples.Synthesis of the samples started with cellulose nano whiskers synthesis via acid hydrolysis. The prepared nanoparticles were then characterized with XRD, DLS, and Zeta potential analysis. It was shown that a big portion of the... 

TPPB are characterized by a cell-containing aqueous phase, and an immiscible and biocompatible organic phase that partitions toxic/insoluble substrates to the cells base on their metabolic demand and the thermodynamic equilibrium of the system. Surface areas, Mass transfer coefficient, Hydrophobicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are considered as limitation in two phase partition bioreactors (TPPB). For solving of this challenge, in this project used solid particle for increment of mss transfer and surface area, and also solid particles can eliminate limitation of initial concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and ratio of aqueous/organic phases. Naphthalene is used as... 

Asphaltine particle precipitation may lead to serious problems in petroleum industry; including wellbore transmissibility reduction. One of the proposed remedial methods is to make a use of the microorganisms which are able to consume the heavy hydrocarbon chains.
Hydrophobicity of a cell surface is one of the parameters which greatly affect the microorganism adhesion to water insoluble hydrocarbons, in which results a higher hydrocarbon biodegradation. Consequently as the hydrophobicity of a cell surface increases; the microorganism tendency to bond with the hydrocarbon molecule enhances. The presence of a surface active agent, as an instance a chemical surfactant, will affect the... 

In the recent years, the enhancing of utilization of polymeric materials, especially in packaging application, became the serious concern because of the problems of their recycling. One of efficient ways for solving this problem is usage of biodegradable polymers. Thermoplastic starch (TPS) is one the alternative materials which is produced in gelatinization process by plasticizers. However, using of TPS because of its low mechanical properties, poor processability and high water absorption is not applicable and it is necessary to improve that. One of the strategy in order to improving the TPS properties is blending with other polymers, such as polylactic acid (PLA) which the biodegradable...