Shuizhou Cai

A porous Cu/LDPE composite for copper-containing intrauterine contraceptive devices.

To improve the rates of both cupric ion release and the utilization of copper in non-porous copper/low-density polyethylene (Cu/LDPE) composite, a porous Cu/LDPE composite is proposed and developed in the present work. Here 2,5-di-tert-butylhydroquinone was chosen as the porogen, ethyl acetate was chosen as the solvent for extraction, and the porous Cu/LDPE composite was obtained by using injection molding and the particulate leaching method. After any residual ethyl acetate remaining inside the porous Cu/LDPE composite had been removed by vacuum drying, the composite was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and absorption measurement. For comparison, a non-porous Cu/LDPE composite was also characterized in the same way. The results show that the porous structure was successfully introduced into the polymeric base of the non-porous Cu/LDPE composite, and the porous Cu/LDPE composite is a simple hybrid of copper particles and porous LDPE. The results also show that the introduction of a porous structure can improve the cupric ion release rate of the non-porous Cu/LDPE composite with a certain content of copper particles, indicating that the utilization rate of copper can be improved either the introduction of a porous structure, and that the porous Cu/LDPE composite is another promising material for copper-containing intrauterine devices.

IDM release behavior and surface characteristics of the novel Cu/IDM/LDPE nanocomposite for intrauterine device.

Copper/indomethacin/low-density polyethylene (Cu/IDM/LDPE) nanocomposite was prepared as a novel material for intra-uterine device (IUD). IDM release profile of the nanocomposite was investigated by using spectrophotometer. The results show that IDM release rate of Cu/IDM/LDPE nanocomposite is higher in simulated uterine solution than that in methanol, confirming that the release process of IDM is dominated mainly by pore diffusion. The decrease in copper particle size and the increase in copper mass content all accelerate IDM release, indicating that IDM release rate can be adjusted by changing copper loading or copper particle size. The surface of the incubated nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis. A few deposits composed of P, Cl, Ca, Cu and O were observed on the nanocomposite surface, which may be related to the presence of IDM particles with large particle size.

A Method of Feature Extraction From the Desorption Part of MOX's Response Curves to Gases

The desorption part of MOXs response curves to gases represents the dynamic information of gas desorption and oxide recovery on the sensitive layer. It contains abundance information and lacks to be well investigated. This paper proposes a feature extraction method from the desorption part of response curves in phase-space. The method extracts only one feature, min(dS t/dt)/max(S t), which is found to be able to represent the recovery profile. This feature could be extracted in the front part of the recovery process. Besides, it is also found that this feature does not change with the reacting time (of the reaction between a sensor and a sample) changing. A dataset was used in the paper, which was consisted of 189 measurements of 9 VOCs by 5 TGS gas sensors at three concentrations. A common feature extraction method that extracted integral in phase-space was used as a comparison in sort classification with the proposed method. The correct recognition rates of Fisher Discriminant Analysis (FDA) with the proposed method and the phase-space integral extracting method were 91.5% and 79.9%, respectively. The results show that the proposed method is an efficient feature extraction method of the recovery profile of response curves.

Will ethylene oxide sterilization influence the application of novel Cu/LDPE nanocomposite intrauterine devices?

BACKGROUND Copper/low-density polyethylene (Cu/LDPE) nanocomposite intrauterine device (IUD) is an implanted medicinal device that must be sterilized before use. Sterilization processes act either chemically or physically, leading to a lethal change in the structure or function of organic macromolecules in microorganisms. Given the nature of their action, sterilization might also attack the macromolecules of polymers by the same mechanisms, resulting in changes in surface functional groups and in the internal structure of the polymer. If sterilization leads to changes in surface functional groups and in the internal structure of the LDPE matrix, which will influence the mechanical property and cupric ions release rate of novel Cu/LDPE nanocomposite IUDs, potential clinical application will be limited. Therefore, it is necessary to study the influence of ethylene oxide sterilization on the potential clinical application of novel Cu/LDPE nanocomposite IUDs. STUDY DESIGN The influence of ethylene oxide sterilization on the internal structure, surface functional groups, mechanical property and cupric ions release rate of novel Cu/LDPE nanocomposite IUDs was studied using differential scanning calorimetry, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, tensile testing and absorbance measurement. RESULTS Ethylene oxide sterilization did not have any influence on the internal structure, surface functional groups, mechanical property and cupric ions release rate of novel Cu/LDPE nanocomposite intrauterine devices. CONCLUSION Ethylene oxide sterilization will not affect the potential application of novel Cu/LDPE nanocomposite IUDs.

A Method of Feature Extraction on Recovery Curves for Fast Recognition Application With Metal Oxide Gas Sensor Array

In the fast recognition applications of electronic nose, not only the recognition time is important, another parameter response-recovery time also needs to be considered. The response-recovery time could be defined as the time from the beginning of measuring one sample to the state of being ready for new sample measurement. An electronic nose with nine metal oxide (MOX) gas sensors and a method of feature extraction on sensor recovery curves were presented in this paper. The electronic nose was designed to reduce the recognition time and the response-recovery time synchronously. In the sampling module of the electronic nose, there were two pumps, which could let the sensor quickly recovered. The feature extraction method could rapidly extract features from sensor recovery curves with robust information. Nine volatile organic compounds (VOCs) gas samples were measured with the electronic nose. The correct recognition ratios under 10 and 15 s recognition time are 91.0% and 95.8%, respectively. The mean response-recovery time of these sensors in the measurements was 33.5 s, which was about 42.7% of the response-recovery time in typical traditional gas sample measurements. The results show that the proposed feature extraction method could extract robust information with short recognition time and response-recovery time.

Preparation and cupric ion release behavior of Cu/LDPE porous composites with tunable pore morphology for intrauterine devices

Copper/low-density polyethylene (Cu/LDPE) porous composites are novel materials for copper-containing intrauterine devices (Cu-IUDs). Here we report a method, i.e., by changing the mass ratio of two kinds of porogens that have different melting points through the combined techniques of injection molding and particulate leaching, to prepare the Cu/LDPE porous composites with tunable pore morphology. After these Cu/LDPE porous composites with different pore morphologies were obtained, the influences of pore morphologies on their cupric ion release behaviors were studied. The results show that the pore morphology has great influence on the cupric ion release behavior of Cu/LDPE porous composites. This phenomenon is caused by the different influences of different pore morphologies on the effective porosity and the surface hydrophilicity. And those results can be applied to guide the fabrication of Cu/LDPE porous composite Cu-IUDs with minimal weight at an appropriate cupric ion release rate.