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Tissue engineering (TE) holds an enormous potential to develop functional scaffolds resembling the structural organization of native tissues, to improve or replace biological functions and prevent organ transplantation. Amongst the many scaffolding techniques, electrospinning has gained widespread interest because of its outstanding features that enable the production of non-woven fibrous structures with a dimensional organization similar to the extracellular matrix. Various polymers can be electrospun in the form of three-dimensional scaffolds. However, very few are successfully processed using environmentally friendly solvents; poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is one of those. PVA has been investigated for TE scaffolding production due to its excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, chemo-thermal stability, mechanical performance and, most importantly, because of its ability to be dissolved in aqueous solutions. Here, a complete overview of the applications and recent advances in PVA-based electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds fabrication is provided. The most important achievements in bone, cartilage, skin, vascular, neural and corneal biomedicine, using PVA as a base substrate, are highlighted. Additionally, general concepts concerning the electrospinning technique, the stability of PVA when processed, and crosslinking alternatives to glutaraldehyde are as well reviewed. ; This research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), FEDER funds by means of Portugal 2020 Competitive Factors Operational Program (POCI) and the Portuguese Government (OE) in the form of the grants POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028074 and ...

[EN] Crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) based composite films were prepared as polyelectrolyte membranes for low temperature direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFC). The membranes were functionalised by means of the addition of graphene oxide (GO) and sulfonated graphene oxide (SGO) and crosslinked with sulfosuccinic acid (SSA). The chemical structure was corroborated and suitable thermal properties were found. Although the addition of GO and SGO slightly decreased the proton conductivity of the membranes, a significant reduction of the ethanol solution swelling and crossover was encountered, more relevant for those functionalised with SGO. In general, the composite membranes were stable under simulated service conditions. The addition of GO and SGO particles permitted to buffer the loss and almost retain similar proton conductivity than prior to immersion. These membranes are alternative polyelectrolytes, which overcome current concerns of actual commercial membranes such as the high cost or the crossover phenomenon. ; The authors would like to thank the support of the European Union through the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF). The Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, is thanked for the research project POLYDECARBOCELL (ENE2017-86711-C3-1-R). The Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports is thanked for the FPU grant for O. Gil-Castell (FPU13/01916). ; Gil Castell, Ó.; Cerveró, R.; Teruel Juanes, R.; Badia, JD.; Ribes Greus, MD. (2019). Functionalised Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)/Graphene Oxide as Polymer Composite Electrolyte Membranes. Journal of Renewable Materials. 7(7):655-665. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2019.04401 ; S ; 655 ; 665 ; 7 ; 7

The authors kindly acknowledge the financial support of the Estonian Research Council for the post-doctoral research grants of personal research funding in projects PUT1096 and PUTJD578 as well as Institutional Research Funding Projects, IUT20-17, and IUT23-7. ; We report the mechanical performance of α‐FeOOH nanowire reinforced poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite nanofiber mat, fabricated using straightforward aqueous processing methods. Goethite (α‐FeOOH) nanocrystals have a high elastic modulus and –OH rich surface, ensuring strong interactions with hydrophilic polymers and effective reinforcement. Needle‐less electrospinning resulted in alignment of the nanowires along fibre axis, as confirmed by transmittance electron microscopy studies. Produced composite PVA nanofibers containing 10 wt% goethite nanoparticles exhibited an outstanding fivefold increase in Young's modulus and 2.5‐fold improvement of tensile strength compared to mats of neat PVA. The addition of α‐FeOOH had a significant influence on glass transition temperature indicating formation of interphase regions around nanowire inclusions. Observed properties are explained by nanowire grafting in the precursor solution, extensive interactions between the adsorbed PVA chains and the matrix and percolation of interphase regions at 10 wt% α‐FeOOH. ; Estonian Research Council PUT1096 and PUTJD578; Institutional Research Funding Projects, IUT20-17, and IUT23-7; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART²

PUBLISHED ; Cited By :5 Export Date: 15 September 2016 ; While liquid phase exfoliation can be used to produce nanosheets stabilized in polymer solutions, very little is known about the resultant nanosheet size, thickness or monolayer content. Here we use semi-quantitative spectroscopic metrics based on extinction, Raman and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to investigate these parameters for WS2 nanosheets exfoliated in aqueous polyvinylalcohol (PVA) solutions. By measuring Raman and PL simultaneously, we can track the monolayer content via the PL/Raman intensity ratio while varying processing conditions. We find the monolayer population to be maximized for a stabilizing polymer concentration of 2 g/L. In addition, the monolayer content can be controlled via the centrifugation conditions, exceeding 5% by mass in some cases. These techniques have allowed us to track the ratio of PL/Raman in a droplet of polymer-stabilized WS2 nanosheets as the water evaporates during composite formation. We find no evidence of nanosheet aggregation under these conditions although the PL becomes dominated by trion emission as drying proceeds and the balance of doping from PVA/water changes. Finally, we have produced bulk PVA/WS2 composites by freeze drying where >50% of the monolayers remain unaggregated, even at WS2 volume fractions as high as 10%. ; The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Program under grant agreement n?604391 Graphene Flagship. We have also received support from the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded centre AMBER (SFI/12/RC/2278). In addition, JNC acknowledges the European Research Council (SEMANTICS) and SFI (11/PI/1087) for financial support. VV-M and CG acknowledge Marie Curie ITN network ?MoWSeS? (grant no. 317451). CB acknowledges the German research foundation DFG (BA 4856/1-1). M.O. acknowledges an Irish Research Council scholarship via the Enterprise Partnership Scheme, Project 201517, Award 12508. G.S.D. acknowledges support from the SFI (PI_10/IN.1/I3030).

A simple, low-cost and versatile holographic method to produce reusable surface-relief gratings on dichromated poly(vinyl alcohol) (DCPVA) films, with periods Λ ≥ 270 nm and modulation depths up to 300 nm, is reported. DCPVA presents processing advantages with respect to other photoresists, such as dichromated gelatine, i.e. higher light sensitivity, simpler fabrication process and better batch to batch reproducibility. The successful use of these DCPVA relief gratings as distributed feedback (DFB) laser resonators is demonstrated. Second-order DFB devices emitting in the wavelength range 577-614 nm have been easily prepared by coating a dye-doped polymer film on top of the resonators. ; We thank the Spanish Government (MINECO) and the European Union (FEDER) for grant no. MAT2011-28167-C02.