Surface fouling and undesired adhesion are nearly ubiquitous problems in the medical field, complicating everything from surgeries to routine daily care of patients. Recently, the concept of immobilized liquid (IL) interfaces has been gaining attention as a highly versatile new approach to antifouling, with a wide variety of promising applications in medicine. Here, we review the general concepts behind IL layers and discuss the fabrication strategies on medically relevant materials developed so far. We also summarize the most important findings to date on applications of potential interest to the medical community, including the use of these surfaces as anti-thrombogenic and anti-bacterial materials, anti-adhesive textiles, high-performance coatings for optics, and as unique platforms for diagnostics. Although the full potential and pitfalls of IL layers in medicine are just beginning to be explored, we believe that this approach to anti-adhesive surfaces will prove broadly useful for medical applications in the future.
Bacterial interactions with surfaces are at the heart of many infection-related problems in healthcare. In this work, the interactions of clinically relevant bacteria with immobilized liquid (IL) layers on oil-infused polymers are investigated. Although oil-infused polymers reduce bacterial adhesion in all cases, complex interactions of the bacteria and liquid layer under orbital flow conditions are uncovered. The number of adherent Escherichia coli cells over multiple removal cycles increases in flow compared to static growth conditions, likely due to a disruption of the liquid layer continuity. Surprisingly, however, biofilm formation appears to remain low regardless of growth conditions. No incorporation of the bacteria into the layer is observed. Bacterial type is also found to affect the number of adherent cells, with more E. coli remaining attached under dynamic orbital flow than Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa under identical conditions. Tests with mutant E. coli lacking flagella confirm that flagella play an important role in adhesion to these surfaces. The results presented here shed new light on the interaction of bacteria with IL layers, highlighting the fundamental differences between oil-infused and traditional solid interfaces, as well as providing important information for their eventual translation into materials that reduce bacterial adhesion in medical applications.
Background Low-temperature swelling of cotton linter cellulose and subsequent gelatinization in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) greatly enhance rates of enzymatic digestion or maleic acid–AlCl 3 catalyzed conversion to hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and levulinic acid (LA). However, lignin inhibits low-temperature swelling of TFA-treated intact wood particles from hybrid poplar ( Populus tremula × P. alba ) and results in greatly reduced yields of glucose or catalytic conversion compared to lignin-free cellulose. Previous studies have established that wood particles from transgenic lines of hybrid poplar with high syringyl (S) lignin content give greater glucose yields following enzymatic digestion. Results Low-temperature (− 20 °C) treatment of S-lignin-rich poplar wood particles in TFA slightly increased yields of glucose from enzymatic digestions and HMF and LA from maleic acid–AlCl 3 catalysis. Subsequent gelatinization at 55 °C resulted in over 80% digestion of cellulose in only 3 to 6 h with high-S-lignin wood, compared to 20–60% digestion in the wild-type poplar hybrid and transgenic lines high in guaiacyl lignin or 5-hydroxy-G lignin. Disassembly of lignin in woody particles by Ni/C catalytic systems improved yields of glucose by enzymatic digestion or catalytic conversion to HMF and LA. Although lignin was completely removed by Ni/C-catalyzed delignification (CDL) treatment, recalcitrance to enzymatic digestion of cellulose from the high-S lines was reduced compared to other lignin variants. However, cellulose still exhibited considerable recalcitrance to complete enzymatic digestion or catalytic conversion after complete delignification. Low-temperature swelling of the CDL-treated wood particles in TFA resulted in nearly complete enzymatic hydrolysis, regardless of original lignin composition. Conclusions Genetic modification of lignin composition can enhance the portfolio of aromatic products obtained from lignocellulosic biomass while promoting disassembly into biofuel and bioproduct substrates. CDL enhances rates of enzymatic digestion and chemical conversion, but cellulose remains intrinsically recalcitrant. Cold TFA is sufficient to overcome this recalcitrance after CDL treatment. Our results inform a ‘no carbon left behind’ strategy to convert total woody biomass into lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose value streams for the future biorefinery. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13068-019-1503-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) has potential as a key platform commodity for producing plastics from bioderived sugars rather than petroleum. To date, economically feasible HMF production has been limited by high substrate cost, the use of expensive solvents, or low reaction yields. In this work, a process to produce HMF directly from corn in a single-vessel reaction is described. Molar HMF yields of 88% are attained through the addition of activated carbon to a reaction media consisting of water, dimethyl sulfoxide, and acetonitrile. An HMF production process is described, and a preliminary economic analysis demonstrates that the minimum selling price of HMF is $1105 per tonne. This selling price is competitive with paraxylene, a similar petroleum-derived chemical for plastic synthesis that is sold for ∼ $1300 per tonne. A sensitivity analysis was performed to identify critical technical hurdles for successful commercialization of an HMF production facility. Additionally, Monte Carlo analysis suggests that the probability of creating a profitable process is high. The results of this work represent a significant step forward for the commercialization of HMF as a commodity chemical to compete with petroleum-based precursors to plastics.
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