Characteristics of a PVDF-Tin Dioxide Membrane Assisted by Electric Field Treatment

Polymeric membranes have good properties for filtering water. In this paper, a membrane made from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer with 15 wt%, 17.5 wt%, and 20 wt% polymer content, with the addition of 1 wt% of tin dioxide with electric field treatment, is presented. The electric field used was DC 15,000 V. The membrane was tested to determine its characteristics and properties. The physical properties were examined with a scanning electron microscope, and the mechanical properties of the membrane were tested by tensile testing. The maximum tensile stress was obtained at 0.746 MPa, and the minimum tensile stress was obtained at 0.487 MPa. Microscopic examination of the membrane's surface identified the shape, the structure of the fibers formed, and the amount of agglomeration. The flow rate, membrane flux, and normalized water permeability (NWP) were tested, using the water treatment performance test to measure the membrane's filtering ability.

A comparison of degradation rate bone scaffold morphology between computer simulation and experimental approach

The objective of this research is to validate the behavior of degradation rate within porous magnesium scaffolds in terms of morphological which includes weight loss after degradation by means of micro-computed tomography (µCT) based on image processing. The main contribution of this work is finding another method to determine morphology based on computer simulation. In the present study, bone scaffold specimens made of pure magnesium that was prepared with three different percentages of porosities 30%, 41%, and 55%. There were immersed and subjected to the dynamic flow rate of simulated body fluid for periods of 24, 48 and 72 hours. One sample of each specimen was scanned by µCT with a resolution of 17 µm. The cross-sections of raw data were superimposed by using MIMICS software to form a 3D reconstruction of the samples after degradation. The degradation morphology was collected from the simulation and showed good agreement with the experimental results by only less than 2%. Based on the simulation results, it is possible to give a recommendation for the alternative way in the morphological study of orthopedic applications.