Review of multifarious applications of polymers in medical and health care textiles (2023)

This chapter provides an overview of the biomedical applications of biodegradable green composites with emphasis on drug delivery, tissue engineering, wound care, personal hygiene, 3D printing and biosensing. Biodegradable green composites were appraised as formulation components and pharmaceutical vehicles for oral, transdermal, local and ocular delivery. These composites were also reviewed as scaffolds for the engineering of different types of tissues including the skin, neural, musculoskeletal, cardiac, vascular, urological and bone tissues. A wide range of biodegradable green composites involving mainly nanocellulose, nanostarch, chitin, lignin, banana peel and soy protein investigated as biomaterials for wound care were examined. Finally, an update was provided on the potential use of biodegradable green composites in the development of health care and personal hygiene materials, bioinks for 3D printing and biosensing. Conclusions and future perspectives highlighted achievements and challenges facing upcoming developments of biodegradable green composites and their large-scale production.

In recent years, the serious influence of infectious diseases on public health and economy development has raised global awareness of the importance of medical textiles for preventing and curing injuries and diseases. The application of biomass molecules is a feasible and sustainable approach to design multipurpose medical materials. In this work, a novel cotton fiber with antibacterial, antioxidant, and drug delivery properties was prepared using gallic acid functionalized polylysine (GA-PL). GA-PL was synthesized by immobilizing GA onto PL using the carbodiimide coupling method. The content of GA immobilized onto PL was 117.9mg/g. The as-prepared GA-PL was grafted onto oxidized cotton by means of the Schiff base reaction between the amino groups of GA-PL and the aldehyde groups of oxidized cotton. The content of GA-PL grafted onto cotton fiber was 205.1mg/g. GA-PL grafted cotton fiber exhibited not only durable antibacterial and antioxidant activities but also good drug loading and releasing properties for acetylsalicylic acid. This work presents a novel, cleaner, and sustainable approach to prepare medical cotton fibers with bioactive and drug delivery properties.

Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 55, Part 2, 2022, pp. 321-326

This study proposes the comparison of raw and alkali metal ion free banana peel as potential adsorbent for the removal of Hg²⁺ ions from aqueous solution. The alkali metal ions from banana peel was removed by protonation process with the help of HCl as protonation agent. Batch adsorption investigations were adopted in order to standardise the batch variables. The equilibrium data and kinetic data tend to fit well with Langmuir and pseudo second order kinetic models. The maximum loading capacity of the adsorbents was found to be 46.8 and 52.2mgg⁻¹ respectively. Desorption of Hg²⁺ ions was successfully achieved with the protonating agent used in this study. These investigations suggest that the protonation step enhances the removal efficiency of Hg²⁺ ions from aqueous solutions.

Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 55, Part 2, 2022, pp. 354-358

During the seismic event, the structure will starts yield and it cracks. This leads in the reduction of its cross-sectional area, gross moment of inertia, etc., which affects the structural stiffness. In this study, the efficiency of a building in terms of its performance level, direct economic losses, and the seismic resilience with reduction in the column stiffness was examined. A high-rise G+10 storey reinforced concrete building was considered in this study. In order to consider the cracked section to evaluate the structural safety in terms of the seismic resilience, the column section stiffness was reduced with respect to the gross moment of inertia of the section. To incorporate this reduction in the gross moment of inertia, the stiffness modifier in SAP2000 software was used. As per Indian Standard (IS: 1893-2016), the gross moment of inertia of the column can be taken as 70% for the structural analysis, hence in this study the two various cases with 70% and 100% of the gross moment of inertia of the column section was compared to find the effect of stiffness reduction in the structural functionality. Using trigonometric recovery functions, the corresponding difference in seismic resilience was evaluated. The result shows that there was a significant change in the performance level but not much dropdown in the functionality of the building and demand ductility.

Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 55, Part 2, 2022, pp. 343-347

The lift generation in a wing of primary importance to the flying vehicle the airfoil geometry plays a vital role in the magnitude of lift and drag forces. The enhancement of lift can be achieved using different active and passive techniques. Effect of fluid material interaction plays a major role in the boundary layer separation. The active control using the roller belt mechanism is investigated using NACA 66₂-015 airfoil wing configuration. The moving belt surface fixed to the top surface of the wing is used designed to operate in the various free stream velocities of 5, 10, and 15m/s. The variation of lift characteristics for different angles of attack has experimented with the increase in belt speed, it is observed that the 10% increase in the effective lift in comparison with wing configuration without moving surface.

Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 55, Part 2, 2022, pp. 316-320

This research is the one-way interaction study of fluid loading on a plunging NACA-2412 modeled UAV wing. Fluid and Structures are two separate domains combined to study both, and their effects on the Aeroelastic structure. This study consists of experimental and computational analysis of the wing structure and the results were compared for effectiveness. The modeled wing was mounted on a cantilever structural setup by restricted to a single degree of freedom. The experimentation was comprised of the static aeroelastic responses of the wings under the aerodynamic loading produced in the wind tunnel for various Reynolds numbers and different angles of attack (α). After the deflection calculations, the model analysis was done using the ANSYS Workbench solid structural analysis and the results were compared with experimental values. The results of the Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) study of the wing were concluded for all angles of attack for different Reynolds numbers and aerodynamic loading. The rate of change of deflection due to the fluid loading at every α=10⁰ angles of attack was found to be 30% at the lowest Reynold’s numbers and a hike up to 60% for higher values.

Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 55, Part 2, 2022, pp. 348-353

Thermoset based fibre-reinforced composite materials expedite their spreading in various industrial applications for their excellent mechanical properties and chemical inertness. However, one of the major drawbacks of these materials is the difficulty in maintaining the dimensional accuracy of the produced parts. These structural problems are related to the residual stresses generated during the thermal curing process. One of the structural problems manifested is the reduction of enclosed angles of angled sections called spring-in. The present study used the vacuum bagging technique followed by thermal curing to fabricate L-angled glass/epoxy laminates. The direct measurements of spring-in angles were taken using a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). Besides, a Finite Element (FE) model was developed in Abaqus to mimic the curing process. The validity of the developed model has been verified with the experimentally measured spring-in angles. Further, this stabilized model is used to assess the contributions of some influencing factors on spring-in. Based on the findings, a few remedial measures are proposed and verified in this paper. The methods such as mould compensation, optimum stacking sequences, and proper tool selection are effective against spring-in.

Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 55, Part 2, 2022, pp. 327-329

Recently, the outbreak of COVID-19 caused serious global health issues and the world is facing a crisis of antiviral resistance. To overcome the crisis, we reviewed the existing therapies that could be an alternative and effective treatment for COVID-19. Therapies such as ozone, laser, UV radiation and radiation therapy are discussed and the mechanism of killing is elaborated. In conclusion, the ozone, laser and radiation therapy could be considered as an alternative therapy in extirpating the coronavirus from bloodstreams and the challenges in bringing these therapies to clinical trials.