Explore the vast range of titles available.

Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have become increasingly widespread across a remarkable range of industries thanks to their unique combination of strength, lightness and durability [...].Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have become increasingly widespread across a remarkable range of industries thanks to their unique combination of strength, lightness and durability [...].

Fish waste is attracting growing interest as a new raw material for biopolymer production in different application fields, mainly in food packaging, with significant economic and environmental advantages. This review paper summarizes the recent advances in the valorization of fish waste for the preparation of biopolymers for food packaging applications. The issues related to fishery industry waste and fish by-catch and the potential for re-using these by-products in a circular economy approach have been presented in detail. Then, all the biopolymer typologies derived from fish waste with potential applications in food packaging, such as muscle proteins, collagen, gelatin, chitin/chitosan, have been described. For each of them, the recent applications in food packaging, in the last five years, have been overviewed with an emphasis on smart packaging applications. Despite the huge industrial potential of fish industry by-products, most of the reviewed applications are still at lab-scale. Therefore, the technological challenges for a reliable exploitation and recovery of several potentially valuable molecules and the strategies to improve the barrier, mechanical and thermal performance of each kind of biopolymer have been analyzed.

The clinical reliability of swabs is affected by their ability to collect and elute biological samples for further detection. Since elution is particularly critical for swab functionality, the goal of this work was to develop a nasopharyngeal swab prototype that could potentially facilitate the release of biological specimens through controlled elastic deformation. To this end, a helical swab-head geometry was designed and 3D-printed by means of stereolithography (SLA). A dual post-curing process combining UV and thermal treatment was employed to maximize the mechanical stiffness of the resin—up to about 750 MPa. Microtomography of the 3D-printed prototypes demonstrated the accuracy of SLA printing, with only 0.12% closed porosity due to printing defects. The mechanical deformation of the prototype under compression was then investigated through numerical modeling and experimental analysis. The results of Finite Element (FE) simulations revealed stress localization in the upper coils, with global mechanical integrity. Experimental compression tests validated the predicted deformation behavior, as supported by video tracking and displacement analysis at multiple nodes, showing good agreement between numerical and experimental displacement. Furthermore, preliminary functional tests with P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, both in saline solution and artificial mucus, demonstrated that the swab-tip prototype per se, without any coating or any applied compression, could perform comparably to commercial cotton and flocked swabs. About a 2-log reduction in bacterial load was detected for all swabs compared to the inoculum when used in saline solution, while a bacterial load roughly matching the inoculum was found when the swabs were used in artificial mucus. Overall, these findings demonstrate the feasibility and the potential of the designed swab prototypes.

Marine pollution is one of the biggest environmental problems, mainly due to single-use or disposable plastic waste fragmenting into microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) and entering oceans from the coasts together with human-made MPs. A rapidly growing worry concerning environmental and human safety has stimulated research interest in the potential risks induced by the chemicals associated with MPs/NPs. In this framework, the present review analyzes the recent advances in adsorption and desorption studies of different contaminants species, both organic and metallic, on MPs made of Poly(Ethylene terephthalate). The choice of PET is motivated by its great diffusion among plastic items and, unfortunately, also in marine plastic pollution. Due to the ubiquitous presence of PET MPS/NPs, the interest in its role as a vector of contaminants has abruptly increased in the last three years, as demonstrated by the very high number of recent papers on sorption studies in different environments. The present review relies on a chemical engineering approach aimed at providing a deeper overview of both the sorption mechanisms of organic and metal contaminants to PET MPs/NPs and the most used adsorption kinetic models to predict the mass transfer process from the liquid phase to the solid adsorbent.

Polymer-based sandwich structures are widely used for their lightweight and tailorable properties, but interfacial failure phenomena often govern their performance. Among these, Mode I skin/core debonding is a critical mechanism that limits structural reliability. This review provides a unified and critical assessment of experimental methodologies for Mode I fracture characterisation, focusing on the ASTM D8637/D8637M standard and alternative setups, including Double Cantilever Beam (DCB), Single Cantilever Beam (SCB), and Climbing Drum Peel (CDP) tests. Alongside the influence of geometrical factors, processing conditions and intrinsic polymer properties on Mode I characterisation are detailed. Conventional DCB setups are shown to introduce mixed-mode effects due to asymmetric loading. In contrast, the modified DCB-UBM setup achieves near-pure Mode I conditions at the expense of increased complexity. Comparative analysis indicates that the SCB configuration with a roller base outperforms the standardised flexible-rod setup, particularly for specimens with non-linear responses. The review also indicates that Mode I debonding behaviour is strongly influenced by several factors, including interfacial adhesion quality, constituent material properties, manufacturing-induced defects, specimen configurations, and environmental factors. Therefore, the interpretation of debonding performance requires a comprehensive structure-property-processing framework. Moreover, geometric constraints imposed by ASTM D8637/D8637M are also revisited, demonstrating that reduced-dimension specimens can yield comparable fracture toughness, thereby enabling greater design flexibility. Additionally, while the standard prescribes Modified Beam Theory (MBT) and Area Method (AM) for initiation and propagation, both methods provide comparable propagation toughness under linear conditions. For non-linear systems, alternative data reductions based on CDP concepts, with the SCB-roller base setup, are effective. Based on this assessment, key challenges and potential improvements are identified, guiding the development of more accurate and reliable testing methodologies for polymer sandwich structures.

Fish industry waste is attracting growing interest for the production of environmentally friendly materials for several different applications, due to the potential for reduced environmental impact and increased socioeconomic benefits. Recently, the application of fish industry waste for the synthesis of value-added materials and energy storage systems represents a feasible route to strengthen the overall sustainability of energy storage product lines. This review focused on an in-depth outlook on the advances in fish byproduct-derived materials for energy storage devices, including lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), sodium-ion (NIBs) batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs), supercapacitors and protein batteries. For each of these, the latest applications were presented together with approaches to improve the electrochemical performance of the obtained materials. By analyzing the recent literature on this topic, this review aimed to contribute to further advances in the sustainability of energy storage devices.

Lightweight thermoplastic sandwich structures have a potential in terms of high specific strength, recyclability, repairability, and reduced manufacturing costs and cycle times, thereby widening their applicability in the aviation industry. However, joining thermoplastic skins to the core is considered a critical process in determining the structural integrity of fully recyclable sandwich systems. Despite rapid technological progress, a comprehensive assessment of manufacturing routes capable of achieving reliable skin/core fusion bonding remains lacking. Therefore, this review critically examines manufacturing techniques for thermoplastic-based sandwich panels, with particular emphasis on advanced processes that achieve effective skin/core fusion bonding. Within conventional manufacturing routes, compression moulding and double-belt lamination have the potential for high-volume production and process automation. Skin/core fusion bonding via in situ core formation enhances manufacturing flexibility, particularly for achieving complex designs. Emerging approaches, including additive manufacturing, automated fibre placement, and welding-based methods, are identified as promising fusion-bonding strategies. This offers enhanced manufacturing simplicity and efficiency by minimising interlinked processing stages and eliminating the need for intricate mould patterns. Future advancements are expected to focus on highly integrated and scalable manufacturing routes capable of simultaneously achieving skin consolidation, in situ core formation, and skin/core fusion bonding within a single process. In particular, continuous welding-assisted manufacturing and additive manufacturing-based approaches are highlighted as promising pathways for improving structural integration, recyclability, and production efficiency in next-generation thermoplastic sandwich structures. Overall, this review provides a structured foundation to guide future research directions and support the development of more efficient, scalable, and structurally reliable thermoplastic sandwich manufacturing technologies.

The current demand for lightweight and high-performance structures leads to increasing applications of carbon fiber reinforced polymers, which is also made possible by novel production methods, automation with repeatable quality, the reduced cost of carbon fibers, out of autoclave processes such as resin transfer molding and resin infusion technologies, the re-use of waste fibers, development in preform technology, high-performance, fast-curing resins, etc [...]

The adsorption studies of contaminants on microplastics (MPs) collected from the marine environment are very hard to carry out mainly due to the difficulties associated with both to filtration of MPs and separation from biofilm and organic matrices. In this work, MPs were produced by a top-down protocol from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles collected on the beach, thus already aged in the natural environment, and compared with engineered MPs obtained from PET pellets. Both types of MPs (size < 150 μm) were used to study the adsorption of amoxicillin, which is one of the most widely consumed antibiotics in the world and is found unchanged in the aquatic environment. The results of sorption kinetics and isotherm tests indicated that aged MPs absorbed a higher antibiotic content than unaged ones since the two kinds of microplastics had different specific surface areas. The experimental results were explained by analysing the thermodynamic affinity among amoxicillin and PET MPs and comparing it with several pharmaceuticals and other microplastics by evaluating Hansen’s solubility parameters (HSPs), which account for dispersive, polarizable and hydrogen bonding contributions to the overall cohesive energy of a compound. The possible interaction mechanism among amoxicillin and PET MPs, based on hydrogen bond interactions among the antibiotic and the ester groups of the polymer, was hypothesised. The results of adsorption tests demonstrated that PET MPs can be pollutant carriers with potential long-range transport in the aquatic environment.

This work contributes to fill one of the gaps regarding nanoplastic interactions with biological systems by producing polyethylene terephthalate (PET) model nanoplastics, similar to those found in the marine environment, by means of a fast top-down approach based on mechanical fragmentation. Their size distribution and morphology were characterized by laser diffraction and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Their autofluorescence was studied by spectrofluorimetry and fluorescence imaging, being a key property for the evaluation of their interaction with biota. The emission spectra of label-free nanoplastics were comparable with those of PET nanoplastics labeled with Nile red. Finally, the suitability of label-free nanoplastics for biological studies was assessed by in vitro exposure with Mytilus galloprovincialis hemolymphatic cells in a time interval up to 6 h. The nanoplastic internalization into these cells, known to be provided with phagocytic activity, was assessed by fluorescence microscopy. The obtained results underlined that the autofluorescence of the model PET nanoplastics produced in the laboratory was adequate for biological studies having the potential to overcome the disadvantages commonly associated with several fluorescent dyes, such as the tendency to also stain other organic materials different from plastics, to form aggregates due to intermolecular interactions at high concentrations with a consequent decrease in fluorescence intensity, and to dye desorption from nanoparticles. The results of the autofluorescence study provide an innovative approach for plastic risk assessment.