Sharif Digital Repository

In present study, bioelectrochemical degradation of oxalate as a substance which its concentration in kidney leads to urolithiasis in a microfluidic microbial fuel cell (MFC) was investigated. In addition, to define a novel application for the microfluidic MFC, measurement and monitoring of oxalate concentration were studied. This application can introduce the system as an implantable medical device for medical usage of urolithiasis and hyperoxaluria diseases. In this work, by designing and fabrication of two MFCs including a large-scale and microfluidic one, and measuring the outlet concentration of oxalate in the large-scale system, the outlet concentration of oxalate at microfluidic MFC... 

Polychlorobiphenyl compounds are a class of persistent organic pollutants consisting of two biphenyl rings and chlorine substations. Polychlorobiphenyls do not dissolve in water, are very stable at high temperatures, and are considered a good conductor. Due to the mentioned properties in the 1930s and 1940s, these compounds were widely used in various industries such as power plants, Painting industry, Plastics industry, etc. After years of use, these substances have been found to be very dangerous to the health of living organisms and the environment due to their high resistance to decomposition and the ability to accumulate in adipose tissue. Today, although the production and use of these... 

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... 

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... 

The micro-scale channel creation in Osteochondral scaffolds is a prominent issue in tissue engineering. In this project we tried to identify the relevant parameters to obtain the method for injecting a biodegradable photo polymer to achieve a micro channel by predictable size.Due to inadequate accuracy in measuring the properties of the non –Newtonian working fluid, it was decided to use the Newtonian fluid equations in this study. The relevant equations for injecting the liquid under constant pressure were extracted. The modeling and design of micro syringe system was then completed. Using the made set up experiment to measure the fluid viscosity were performed.The next step was the... 

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... 

Cranioplasty is a surgical procedure for repairing skull defects. This surgery will protect the brain tissue, reduce pain in the lesion site and reduce the psychological burden on the patient. Cranioplasty implants should have distinct characteristics, i.e., high strength for protecting the brain, full coverage of skull defects, resistance to infection, non-expansion with heat, and reasonable price. Titanium implants, bone allografts, hydroxyapatite, and methyl methacrylate are commonly used in this surgery. However, these materials have many disadvantages that limit their use. As a result, biodegradable material and 3D printing technology are the next steps for designing scaffolds according... 

Building complex and functional tissues and organs is very challenging. One of the challenges is building an efficient network of blood vessels that can be used to facilitate the transport of nutrients and oxygen to the host. In addition to using channels for oxygen supply, another solution is to use oxygen-carrying materials. In this study, in addition to designing and simulating scaffolds with multi-scale microchannels, calcium peroxide was used to release oxygen and eliminate hypoxia in the scaffold. Here alginate is used as the main material for scaffolding. In an attempt to build a scaffold using a bio-printer, pluronic acid was also used as a sacrificial material to create canals.... 

Thermodynamic, structural and transport properties of ester-functionalized ionic liquids (ILs), also kwon as biodegradable ILs, were extensively investigated using molecular dynamic simulation. Thermodynamics features of this class of ILs were computed from 1.5 ns simulations. Nanoscale organization of these ILs was evaluated by computing several structural properties. The formations of micelle-like nanostructures were disclosed from the achieved results of structural properties. The obtained results were also confirmed by calculating transport traits. These results suggest that the incorporation of an ester group into the alkyl side chain of the cation promotes the cation–anion interionic... 

The use of microorganisms to remove or produce a substace is a fundamental part of biotechnology. An example is the bioreactors for phenol removal in wastewater. Biological processes are commonly done in batch reactors in which suspended cells grow in the liquid phase. The batch process needs alternate reactor washes and alternate cell cultivation, which leades to a longer time constant for for each batch. If these reactors operate in continuous conditions, the cells will leave the reactor in liquid flow, and high cell concentrations will be impossible. The biofilm layer makes a batch phase, so the liquid phase flows in and out continuously, but the cells in the biofilm layer stay in the... 

Poly (Lacticacid) belongs to the family of aliphatic polyesters. PLA can be made from annually renewable resources to yield articles for use in either the industrial packaging field or the biocompatible /bioabsorbable medical device market. Production of PLA through polycondensation in an industrial way was the aim of this project. In order to have the appropriate reaction conditions a steel reactor was designed and constructed. Feasibilty of PLA production in the constructed reactor was investigated and the product was analyzed, using H-NMR and FT-IR spectrum analysis. The average molecular weight was measured by GPC and ubbelohde viscometery method. Studies have shown that oligomerization... 

Recently, some wound dressings have been designed that are expected to enhance the wound healing process and prevent blood bleeding and infection. Polymeric dressings have attracted attention due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, lack of toxicity, and non-allergenic nature. There is widespread interest in using silk fibroin (SF) for this purpose because of its unique properties. Given these points, we have designed an injectable antioxidant hydrogel wound dressing based on SF and Polydopamine(PDA) modified ZnO nanoparticles. First, ZnO nanoparticles were doped with Cu and then modified with PDA (ZnCuO@PDA). XRD, FTIR, SEM, and TEM characterizations were carried out to confirm the... 

Polylactic acid (PLA) is considered as a great option to be employed as 3D porous scaffold in tissue engineering applications owing to its excellent biocompatibility and processability. However, relatively weak mechanical properties, low degradation rate and inappropriate biodegradability limit its extensive usage. In order to overcome the mentioned challenges, micrometric magnesium (Mg) particles were incorporated into the PLA matrix by the fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique. The effects of various Mg contents (i.e., 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 wt%) on the mechanical, thermal, structural, wettability, rheological, biodegradability characteristics and cellular behavior of the 3D porous PLA-Mg... 

In the present study, the acrylated polyurethane/nanohydroxyapatite (APU/n-HAp) nanocomposites were fabricated for use in bone tissue regeneration. The APU was synthesized based on poly(ε-caprolactone) diol (PCL), aliphatic 1,6- hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and hydroxyethyl methyl acrylate (HEMA). The effect of HAp nanoparticles on the physicochemical properties of APU was evaluated. The APU/n-HAp nanocomposites were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic mechanical thermal analyses (DMTA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mechanical tests including tensile strength and elongation at break. The increase in physical properties achieved by incorporation of n-HAp... 

Bio-based shape memory polymers with fast-response have high potential for use in medical applications. In this study, biocompatible and biodegradable nanocomposites based on shape memory polyurethane acrylates (SMPUA)/cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), were synthesized by in-situ polymerization. CNC is a natural and renewable nanoparticle that has been considered for medical applications due to its excellent mechanical and biological properties and surface chemistry. At the first phase of this study, in order to synthesize UV-curable shape memory polyurethane acrylate, polycaprolactone diol (PCL-Diol), hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) were used as an reactive... 

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... 

Due to the negative effects of conventional plastics on the environment, 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 process ability. 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... 

With the environmental concerns and scarce supply of the crude oil, a revival in the development of bio-based and compostable materials is coming. They are in general being called the ''green'' materials, among which poly(lactic acid) (PLA) got the most extensive attention due to its good combined properties, including the renewable feedstock, the compostability, and its good mechanical properties, especially the young's modulus and stiffness. PLA has found numerous applications. It is considered having the highest potential to replace some regular petroleum based plastics. However PLA has its own shortcomings, its brittleness, low heat distortion temperature and relatively high cost witch... 

Increasing use of polymeric materials, especially in the packaging industry, besides the problems that exist in recycling these materials, has become a serious concern for the environment. The synthetic polymers are used widely in packaging industry so they have a considerable role in waste production in packaging industry. One way to solve this problem is adding a natural polymer to the synthetic polymer, as a result it becomes friendly environmentally. Starch is one of these natural polymers which is cheap and has the ability to complete degradation in the environment.using row starch in the polymeric compounds causes a severe drop in compound’s properties. For this reason, row starch must... 

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...