Water Vapor Transmission Ratio Research Articles

Ultrathin skin-conformable electrodes with high water vapor permeability and stretchability characteristics composed of single-walled carbon nanotube networks assembled on elastomeric films

Herein, we report on conductive ultrathin films (nanosheets) with the characteristics of stretchability and water vapor permeability for skin-conformable bioelectrodes. The films are fabricated by combining conductive fibrous networks of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS) nanosheets (i.e., SWCNT-SBS nanosheets). An increase in the number of SWCNT coatings increases both the thicknesses and densities of the SWCNT bundles. The SBS nanosheets coated with three layers of SWCNTs (i.e., SWCNT 3rd-SBS nanosheets) show comparable sheet resistance to the SBS nanosheets coated with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxithiophene) doped with poly(4-styrenesulfonate acid) (PEDOT:PSS) containing 5 wt.% butylene glycol (i.e., PEDOT:PSS/BG5-SBS nanosheets). In addition, the SWCNT 3rd-SBS nanosheets exhibit significantly reduced elastic moduli and increased elongations at break compared to the PEDOT:PSS/BG5-SBS nanosheets. Furthermore, the calculated water vapor transmission ratio of the 210-nm-thick SBS nanosheets (268,172 g m−2 (2 h)−1) is greater than that of the filter paper (6345 g m−2 (2 h)−1). The SWCNT 3rd-SBS nanosheets attached to model skin show high tolerances to bending and artificial sweat at different pH values (i.e., the electrical resistance changes ~1.1 times). Finally, the SWCNT 3rd-SBS nanosheet is applied to detect the surface electromyogram from the forearm of a subject. This nanosheet displays a signal-to-noise ratio similar to that of the PEDOT:PSS/BG5-SBS nanosheet.

Development, Characterization, and In‐Vitro Evaluation of Niosomal Transdermal Patch of Lamotrigine Drug

AbstractNiosomes are self‐assembled vesicular nanocarriers obtained by hydration of synthetic surfactants and appropriate amounts of cholesterol or other amphiphilic molecules. The transdermal route of drug administration ensures systemic delivery of drug by applying a drug formulation onto intact and healthy skin thus ensuring sustained drug release and bypass of first‐pass metabolism. Thus, the aim of the study is to develop antiepileptic drugs loaded niosomal transdermal patches an effective substitute for the existing maintenance therapies used for controlling epileptic seizures. In this study, transdermal patch formulation is prepared with optimized niosomal formulation and optimized PVA and PVP polymers, plasticizers, and penetration enhancers by solvent casting method. These patches are characterized for physico‐chemical parameters such as folding endurance, tensile strength, swelling ratio, percentage drug content, percentage moisture content, water vapor transmission ratio, and in‐vitro diffusion study.

HBN Flake Embedded Al2O3 Thin Film for Flexible Moisture Barrier.

Due to the vulnerability of organic optoelectronic devices to moisture and oxygen, thin-film moisture barriers have played a critical role in improving the lifetime of the devices. Here, we propose a hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) embedded Al2O3 thin film as a flexible moisture barrier. After layer-by-layer (LBL) staking of polymer and hBN flake composite layer, Al2O3 was deposited on the nano-laminate template by spatial plasma atomic layer deposition (PEALD). Because the hBN flakes in Al2O3 thin film increase the diffusion path of moisture, the composite layer has a low water vapor transmission ratio (WVTR) value of 1.8 × 10−4 g/m2 day. Furthermore, as embedded hBN flakes restrict crack propagation, the composite film exhibits high mechanical stability in repeated 3 mm bending radius fatigue tests.

A Novel Approach for the Development of Moisture Encapsulation Poly(vinyl alcohol-co-ethylene) for Perovskite Solar Cells

In this study, we developed the universal encapsulation method using poly(vinyl alcohol-co-ethylene) (EVOH) to improve the water stability of perovskite solar cells. In order to enhance the moisture barrier property, we utilized SiO2 and graphene oxide (GO) fillers in the EVOH matrix. First, UV-treated SiO2 increased the dispersibility in the EVOH matrix and made the penetrating path more complicated, which led to a better moisture barrier property. The water vapor transmission ratio (WVTR) is enhanced from 4.72 × 10–2 (EVOH only) to 1.55 × 10–2 (EVOH with SiO2 filler) g/m2 day. Second, we found that GO reduce the unreacted hydroxyl groups that could attract water molecules at the surface of EVOH. The addition of GO increased the WVTR up to 3.34 × 10–3 g/m2 day. Finally, our EVOH-based film successfully encapsulated without the efficiency drop. The encapsulated devices surprisingly maintained 86% of their performance even under direct contact with water for 5 h.

Optical in situ monitoring of plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition process

An optical in situ process monitoring method for the early detection of anomalies in plasma process equipment is presented. Cyclic process steps of precursor treatment and plasma reaction for the deposition of an angstrom-scale film increase their complexity to ensure the process quality. However, a small deviation in process parameters, for instance, gas flow rate, process temperature, or RF power, may jeopardize the deposited film quality. As a test vehicle for the process monitoring, we have investigated the aluminum-oxide (Al2O3) encapsulation process in plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) to form a moisture and oxygen diffusion barrier in organic-light emitting diodes (OLEDs). By optical in situ monitoring, we successfully identified the reduction in oxygen flow rates in the reaction steps, which resulted in a 2.67 times increase in the water vapor transmission ratio (WVTR) of the deposited Al2O3 films. Therefore, we are convinced that the suggested in situ monitoring method is useful for the detection of process shifts or drifts that adversely affect PEALD film quality.

Beneficial effects of a novel shark-skin collagen dressing for the promotion of seawater immersion wound healing

BackgroundWounded personnel who work at sea often encounter a plethora of difficulties. The most important of these difficulties is seawater immersion. Common medical dressings have little effect when the affected area is immersed in seawater, and only rarely dressings have been reported for the treatment of seawater-immersed wounds. The objective of this study is to develop a new dressing which should be suitable to prevent the wound from seawater immersion and to promote the wound healing.MethodsShark skin collagen (SSC) was purified via ethanol de-sugaring and de-pigmentation and adjusted for pH. A shark skin collagen sponge (SSCS) was prepared by freeze-drying. SSCS was attached to an anti-seawater immersion polyurethane (PU) film (SSCS + PU) to compose a new dressing. The biochemical properties of SSC and physicochemical properties of SSCS were assessed by standard methods. The effects of SSCS and SSCS + PU on the healing of seawater-immersed wounds were studied using a seawater immersion rat model. For the detection of SSCS effects on seawater-immersed wounds, 12 SD rats, with four wounds created in each rat, were divided into four groups: the 3rd day group, 5th day group, 7th day group and 12th day group. In each group, six wounds were treated with SSCS, three wounds treated with chitosan served as the positive control, and three wounds treated with gauze served as the negative control. For the detection of the SSCS + PU effects on seawater-immersed wounds, 36 SD rats were divided into three groups: the gauze (GZ) + PU group, chitosan (CS) + PU group and SSCS + PU group, with 12 rats in each group, and two wounds in each rat. The wound sizes were measured to calculate the healing rate, and histomorphology and the immunohistochemistry of the CD31 and TGF-β expression levels in the wounded tissues were measured by standard methods.ResultsThe results of Ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrum, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum, circular dichroism (CD) spectra, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and amino acid composition analyses of SSC demonstrated that SSC is type I collagen. SSCS had a homogeneous porous structure of approximately 200 μm, porosity rate of 83.57% ± 2.64%, water vapor transmission ratio (WVTR) of 4500 g/m2, tensile strength of 1.79 ± 0.41 N/mm, and elongation at break of 4.52% ± 0.01%. SSCS had significant beneficial effects on seawater-immersed wound healing. On the 3rd day, the healing rates in the GZ negative control, CS positive control and SSCS rats were 13.94% ± 5.50%, 29.40% ± 1.10% and 47.24% ± 8.40%, respectively. SSCS also enhanced TGF-β and CD31 expression in the initial stage of the healing period. The SSCS + PU dressing effectively protected wounds from seawater immersion for at least 4 h, and accelerated re-epithelialization, vascularization and granulation formation of seawater-immersed wounds in the earlier stages of wound healing, and as well as significantly promoted wound healing. The SSCS + PU dressing also enhanced expression of TGF-β and CD31. The effects of SSCS and SSCS + PU were superior to those of both the chitosan and gauze dressings.ConclusionsSSCS has significant positive effects on the promotion of seawater-immersed wound healing, and a SSCS + PU dressing effectively prevents seawater immersion, and significantly promotes seawater-immersed wound healing.

Highly stable 2D material (2DM) field-effect transistors (FETs) with wafer-scale multidyad encapsulation

Field-effect transistors (FETs) composed of 2D materials (2DMs) such as transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials show unstable electrical characteristics in ambient air due to the high sensitivity of 2DMs to water adsorbates. In this work, in order to demonstrate the long-term retention of electrical characteristics of a TMD FET, a multidyad encapsulation method was applied to a MoS2 FET and thereby its durability was warranted for one month. It was well known that the multidyad encapsulation method was effective to mitigate high sensitivity to ambient air in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) composed of organic materials. However, there was no attempt to check the feasibility of such a multidyad encapsulation method for 2DM FETs. It is timely to investigate the water vapor transmission ratio (WVTR) required for long-term stability of 2DM FETs. The 2DM FETs were fabricated with MoS2 flakes by both an exfoliation method, that is desirable to attain high quality film, and a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, that is applicable to fabrication for a large-sized substrate. In order to eliminate other unwanted variables, the MoS2 FETs composed of exfoliated flakes were primarily investigated to assure the effectiveness of the encapsulation method. The encapsulation method uses multiple dyads comprised of a polymer layer by spin coating and an Al2O3 layer deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The proposed method shows wafer-scale uniformity, high transparency, and protective barrier properties against adsorbates (WVTR of 8 × 10−6 g m−2 day−1) over one month.

Study of multi-functional electrospun composite nanofibrous mats for smart wound healing

Composite nanofibers derived from synthetic and natural polymers normally show desirable characteristics in biomedical applications. In this study, composite nanofibrous mats (denoted as CNMs) with diameters of around 300nm were fabricated facilely using blends of chitosan, gelatin and shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) by electrospinning and subsequent post-treatment with a silver nitrate solution. The obtained CNMs have shape memory effect and show desirable water vapor transmission ratio, surface wettability, satisfactory biological properties including antibacterial activity against the common Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, cytocompatibility demonstrated to fibroblast, and the hemostatic property through a whole-blood clotting test. In addition, such CNMs can possibly benefit the wound healing through shape fixation-assisted easy processing and shape recovery-assisted closure of cracked wounds, which can be fine-tuned by pre-programming. Therefore, the CNMs presented in this study can be used as potential smart wound dressings.

70.3L: Late‐News Paper: All Wet Processable Barrier Film for Flexible OLED Displays

AbstractWe have succeeded in developing a world‐top‐class high barrier film with the water vapor transmission ratio of 3times10−5(g/m2/day). The developed film is all‐wet‐processable and crack‐free and realized by a layer‐by‐layer assembly of clay nanosheets. The clay nanosheets are grown by alternately depositing exfoliated montmorillonite clay and cationic binder. The mechanism of the enhanced barrier performance is presumably due to increased path length of gas diffusion along nanosheets. The developed barrier film is sufficiently impermeable to moisture and will provide a cost‐effective solution to produce flexible OLEDs.

A study of thin film encapsulation on polymer substrate using low temperature hybrid ZnO/Al2O3 layers atomic layer deposition

Hybrid ZnO/Al2O3 layers grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at extremely low temperature (60 °C) have been investigated as thin film encapsulations (crystalline ZnO and amorphous Al2O3 films) on polymer substrates. All single and laminated film thicknesses are approximately 60 nm. As the thickness of ZnO layer decreased from 60 nm to 0 nm, the physical properties of laminated structures were systematically manipulated such as film crystallinity, surface roughness, density, transmittance and stress. The multi-laminated structure with 10 nm thick ZnO and 10 nm thick Al2O3 layers exhibited very lower crystallinity, smoother surface (root mean square ∼ 0.2 nm), higher transmittance (over 90% at 550 nm wavelength) and similar film stress, to compare with these of a single ZnO film. As a transparent gas barrier layer, the multi-laminated structure with a thinner ZnO and Al2O3 had better barrier property than that of single ZnO and Al2O3 layers, showing that the water vapor transmission ratio of multi-laminated ZnO/Al2O3 layer was 10 times lower than that of the single layer.

Enhancing Physical Properties and Antimicrobial Activity of Konjac Glucomannan Edible Films by Incorporating Chitosan and Nisin

The antimicrobial effect of konjac glucomannan (KGM) edible film incorporating chitosan (CHI) and nisin at various ratios or concentrations was studied. This activity was tested against pathogenic bacteria, namely, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus cereus. Mechanical and physical properties were determined, and the results indicated that the blend film KC2 (mixing ratio KGM 80/ CHI 20) showed the maximum tensile strength (102.8 ± 3.8 MPa) and good transparency, water solubility, and water vapor transmission ratio. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to characterize the structural change of the blend films; and the results showed that strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds occurred between CHI and KGM. Incorporation of nisin at 463 IU per disk of film for the selected KC2 was found to have antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, and B. cereus. The mean value of inhibition zone diameter of the CHI-N series and the KC2-N series were higher than the KGM-N series at each corresponding concentration and with significant difference (P < 0.05), however, there was no significant difference in the antimicrobial effect between CHI and KC2 incorporating nisin. At all these levels, the blend film KC2-nisin had a satisfactory appearance, mechanical and physical properties, and antimicrobial activity. Therefore, it could be considered as a potential active packaging material.

Preparation and performance evaluation of glucomannan–chitosan–nisin ternary antimicrobial blend film

The material behaviour and antimicrobial effect of konjac glucomannan edible film incorporating chitosan and nisin at various ratio or concentrations is discussed. This activity was tested against food pathogenic bacteria namely Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus cereus. Mechanical and physical properties were determined and the results indicated that the blend film KC2 (mixing ratio konjac glucomannan 80/chitosan 20) showed the maximum tensile strength (102.8 ± 3.8 MPa) and a good transparency, water solubility, water vapor transmission ratio. The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), etc. were used to characterize the structural change of the blend films. The results showed that the strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds took place between chitosan and konjac glucomannan. Incorporation of nisin at 42,000 IU/g of film for the selected blend film KC2 was found to have antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, and B. cereus. The antimicrobial effect of chitosan or KC2 incorporating nisin was much better than that of konjac glucomannan incorporating nisin at each corresponding concentration and existed significant difference ( p < 0.05), however, there was no significant difference on the antimicrobial effect between chitosan and KC2 both incorporating nisin. At all these levels, the ternary blend film KC2-nisin had a satisfactory mechanical, physical properties and antimicrobial activity, and could be applied as a potential ‘active’ packaging material.

Quick dissolvable, edible and heatsealable blend films based on konjac glucomannan – Gelatin

A novel quick dissolvable, edible and heatsealable blend film of konjac glucomannan and gelatin was prepared successfully by using the solvent-casting technique with different blending ratios of the two polymers. The structure of the blend films was investigated by using differential scanning calorimeter, Fourier transform infrared spectrum and transparence analysis, etc., the physical properties of the films such as mechanical property, heat-sealing, water–vapor transmission ratio and water-solubility were also examined. The results indicated that the blend system of konjac glaucomannan and gelatin had a conditional miscibility. A new crystal occurred and hydrogen bonding interaction was strengthened when the KGM content in the blend films was around 40 wt%. The blend film had the best miscibility, a good tensile strength, heatseal and the least water–vapor transmission ratio at the same ratio. All the blend films showed a wonderful water-solubility and could dissolve not more than 30 s. Taking the degradability into account, the blend film K4 might be a perfect material for edible inner packaging.

Studies on Water Vapor Transmission Ratio of Various Types of Plastics Films Stocked at Low Temperature

Studies on Water Vapor Transmission Ratio of Various Types of Plastics Films Stocked at Low Temperature