An amperometric sol-gel derived sensor that both releases nitric oxide (NO) and measures physiologically relevant concentrations of oxygen (PO2) is described. The sensor consists of a platinum electrode coated with an aminosilane/ethyltrimethoxysilane hybrid xerogel film. Hydrophilic polyurethane (HPU) is doped into the hybrid film to reduce sensor hydration time and increase oxygen permeabilit...

The chipping process in a brittle material subjected to a uniformly applied edge load has been investigated. The present analysis extends earlier work by recognizing that as the chip is formed it may bend and change the loading at the crack tip. This geometry change introduces a nonlinear effect and has significant influence on the phenomenon. The nonlinear effect was demonstrated by incorporat...

Although a thorough understanding of fatigue crack initiation is lacking, experiments have shown that the evolution of distinct dislocation distributions and surface roughness are key ingredients. In the present study we introduce a computational framework that ties together dislocation dynamics, the fields due to crystallographic surface steps and cohesive surfaces to model near-atomic separat...

This study evaluated the tradeoffs amongst fatigue crack propagation resistance, wear resistance, and oxidative stability in a wide variety of clinically-relevant cross-linked ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. Highly cross-linked re-melted materials showed good oxidation and wear performance, but diminished fatigue crack propagation resistance. Highly cross-linked annealed materials sho...

Chemical strengthening via ion exchange, thermal tempering, and lamination are proven techniques for the strengthening of oxide glasses. For each of these techniques, the strengthening mechanism is conventionally ascribed to the linear superposition of the compressive stress (CS) profile on the glass surface. However, in this work, we use molecular dynamics simulations to reveal the underlying ...

Fracture-induced mechanochemical activation is achieved for the first time in a structural engineering polymer. Rubber toughened PMMA is lightly cross-linked (1.0 mol%) with the mechanophore spiropyran by free radical polymerization. Single Edge Notch Tension tests are performed on the spiropyran-linked material and a distinct change in color and fluorescence is detected at the crack tip, indic...

In this paper, we’ll answer several abstract, formal questions about the nature of crack growth and nucleation. Bringing a field theory point of view to fracture illuminates things in what I hope will be an entertaining way. Formally, what is the crack nucleation rate? Fracture is an instability of elastic theory under tension. For thermally nucleated cracks, there is an analogy with supercoole...

various concentrations of copper were embedded into silica matrix to xerogel forms using copper source cu(no3)2∙3h2o. the xerogel samples were prepared by hydrolysis and condensation of tetraethyl ortho-silicate (teos) with determination of new molar ratio of the components by the sol-gel method. after ambient drying, the xerogel samples were heated from 60 to 1000˚c at a slow heating rate (50°...

Homogeneous thick silica coatings were prepared onto metals substrates by Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD) using particulate sol-gel sols. The synthesis of the sols was performed by mixing tetraethoxysilane and methyltriethoxysilane under basic catalysis. The synthesis, storage and processing conditions were optimised, correlating the rheological properties of the sols with EPD performance and ...