Mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, and anti-adherence characterization of pure titanium fabricated by casting, milling, and selective laser melting

Milling and selective laser melting (SLM) technology have become new options for removable partial denture (RPD) processing. However, whether milling and SLM technology has an impact on the properties of RPD remains unclear, which is also the aim of our study. To investigate the effects of milling and SLM technology on pure titanium, mechanical property, corrosion resistance, and anti-adherence of specimens were evaluated, and specimens processed by lost-wax casting were used as control. Compared with casting and milling groups, the SLM group showed enhanced Vickers hardness (402.1 ± 13.0 HV), tensile stress (694.4 ± 4.5 MPa), and larger electrochemical capacitance arc radius compared with casting and milling groups. A series of adhesion-related genes (Als1, Als3, and HWP1) of Candida albicans cultured on SLM specimens were upregulated for more than two times that of casting and milling groups. However, images from scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy exhibited similar biofilm morphology and biomass of C. albicans on a titanium disk processed by casting, milling, and SLM. Dwindled water contact angle (64.7 ± 0.6°) and higher TiO₂ constituents (40.82%) in the SLM group might lead to the incompatibility of genetic expression and biofilm generation. Our findings indicated that SLM is an ideal process to produce titanium dentures, providing a reference on the selection of processing technology for dentists.

A New 3D Cultured Liver Chip and Real-Time Monitoring System Based on Microfluidic Technology

In vitro models of the liver have a good simulation of the micro-liquid environment inside the human liver and the communication between cell tissues, which provides an important research tool for drug research and liver disease treatment. In this paper, we designed a 3D liver chip and real-time monitoring system based on microfluidic technology. The in vitro model of the liver on the chip was established by the three-dimensional microfluidic chip pipeline and the corresponding microwell array. Meanwhile, the culture medium is continuously injected on the chip, and the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and near-infrared spectroscopy of the liver chip are recorded and analyzed from day one to day five. When the 3D cultured liver chip in vitro model reached a certain period and stabilized, paracetamol with varying gradients of concentration was applied to the cultured cells for drug resistance testing. The experimental results show that the liver chip and its monitoring system designed in this paper can maintain 100% cell viability of hepatocytes in vitro for a long time. Furthermore, it can meet the requirements of measurement technologies such as electrical impedance measurement and near-infrared spectroscopy in real-time, providing a stable culture platform for the further study of organ chips.

Harmonic-balance circuit analysis for electro-neural interfaces

OBJECTIVE

Avoidance of the adverse electrochemical reactions at the electrode-electrolyte interface defines the voltage safety window and limits the charge injection capacity (CIC) of an electrode material. For an electrode that is not ideally capacitive, the CIC depends on the waveform of the stimulus. We study the modeling of the charge injection dynamics to optimize the waveforms for efficient neural stimulation within the electrochemical safety limits.

APPROACH

The charge injection dynamics at the electrode-electrolyte interface is typically characterized by the electrochemical impedance spectrum, and is often approximated by discrete-element circuit models. We compare the modeling of the complete circuit, including a non-linear driver such as a photodiode, based on the harmonic-balance (HB) analysis with the analysis based on various - (discrete-element) approximations. To validate the modeling results, we performed experiments with iridium-oxide electrodes driven by a current source with diodes in parallel, which mimics a photovoltaic circuit.

MAIN RESULTS

Application of HB analysis based on a full impedance spectrum eliminates the complication of finding the discrete-element circuit model in traditional approaches. HB-based results agree with the experimental data better than the discrete-element circuit. HB technique can be applied not only to demonstrate the circuit response to periodic stimulation, but also to describe the initial transient behavior when a burst waveform is applied.

SIGNIFICANCE

HB-based circuit analysis accurately describes the dynamics of electrode-electrolyte interfaces and driving circuits for all pulsing schemes. This allows optimizing the stimulus waveform to maximize the CIC, based on the impedance spectrum alone.