The global production of thermosets has been increasing in recent years causing rapid consumption of fossil-based feedstocks and contributing to the plastic waste accumulation in the environment, especially because they cannot be easily reprocessed or recycled at the end of their lifetime. These drawbacks can only be overcome with the development of environmentally friendly, recyclable thermosets from renewable resources. For this reason, we present a facile way to produce a biobased reprocessable thermoset, a vitrimer, by thiol-acrylate coupling between epoxidized soybean oil acrylate and a diboronic ester dithiol dynamic cross-linker. The synthesis of the cross-linker and all the processes for the production of the vitrimer has been done following green chemistry principles. The developed vitrimer material can be reprocessed multiple times like a thermoplastic, without compromising its mechanical properties. Moreover, it can be conveniently recycled by reversible hydrolysis in 90% ethanol and subsequent solvent evaporation, regenerating the original vitrimer. An important advantage of the developed material, especially regarding its applications, is that it is able to self-repair mechanical abrasion-related defects, like scratches and cuts, at room temperature, thanks to the low glass transition temperature and rapid boronic ester exchange, which enables it to demonstrate great potential as a self-healing coating. In case of an accidental release into the environment, it is able to biodegrade, solving the problem of waste accumulation.

New solvent results in non-porous nylon 66 films. Addition of graphene results in great improvement of electrical and mechanical properties.

In this study, a new strategy for the utilization of cocoa shell waste, a by‐product of cocoa industry, is presented for the development of new bioelastomers. The cocoa shell waste (CSW) is first micronized and then incorporated into single component acetoxy‐poly(dimethylsiloxane) (acetoxy‐PDMS) macromolecular matrix by a mixing process to produce bioelastomer composites with tunable properties. A detailed study is carried out to investigate the influence of micronized cocoa waste concentration on the curing process and on the properties of final materials. It is found that addition of CSWs has a strong effect on the curing behavior of PDMS due to establishment of an intermolecular hydrogen bond network between the two components. CSW bioelastomers are hydrophobic and exhibit good water barrier properties. In addition, the bioelastomers show effective antioxidant scavenging activity against 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl free radical (DPPH•) and 2,2′‐azinobis(3‐ethylbenzothiazoline‐6‐sulfonic acid) radical cation (ABTS•+). The incorporation of micronized CSW into PDMS is also found to significantly enhance the Young's modulus of the elastomers. Hence, these antioxidant bioelastomers originating from food industry waste can be highly suitable as materials for active food packaging applications.

A completely green approach was adopted for the production of biocomposites of polylactic acid (PLA) and cellulosic fibers (CF) via functionalization of CF with an aqueous solution of poly­(ethylene oxide) (PEO) followed by extrusion with PLA and injection molding. The treatment with PEO improved the interfacial interaction among the components as well as the CF dispersion and free flow upon extrusion, allowing loading up to 30 wt % of CF. Moreover, the synergistic effect of PEO and CF greatly enhanced the physical–chemical properties of the biocomposites. Their storage modulus was higher with respect to pure PLA in the rubbery region. The stiffness and mechanical strength were found to be higher than those of PLA/PEO and remained comparable to pure PLA, whereas the elongation at break was 73–143% higher owing to the effective plasticizing and reinforcing effect exerted by PEO and CF respectively. Addition of PEO and CF had a great influence on the thermal properties, particularly on the glass transition and cold crystallization temperatures. Overall, the appealing properties of the proposed biocomposites combined with the sustainability of the developed process render them ideal for several technological applications within the plastic industry including food and cosmetic packaging, disposable items, and toys.

Technologies that are able to handle microvolumes of liquids, such as microfluidics and liquid marbles, are attractive for applications that include miniaturized biological and chemical reactors, sensors, microactuators, and drug delivery systems. Inspired from natural fibrous envelopes, here, we present an innovative approach for liquid encapsulation and manipulation using electrospun nanofibers. We demonstrated the realization of non-wetting soft solids consisting of a liquid core wrapped in a hydrophobic fibrillar cloak of a fluoroacrylic copolymer and cellulose acetate. By properly controlling the wetting and mechanical properties of the fibers, we created final architectures with tunable mechanical robustness that were stable on a wide range of substrates (from paper to glass) and floated on liquid surfaces. Remarkably, the realized fiber-coated drops endured vortex mixing in a continuous oil phase at high stirring speed without bursting or water losses, favoring mixing processes inside the entrapped liquid volume. Moreover, the produced cloak can be easily functionalized by incorporating functional particles, active molecules, or drugs inside the nanofibers.

Here we show that macrozwitterions of poly(ethyl 2-cyanoacrylate), commonly called Super Glue, can easily assemble into long and well defined fibers by electrospinning. The resulting fibrous networks are thermally treated on glass in order to create transparent coatings whose superficial morphology recalls the organization of the initial electrospun mats. These textured coatings are characterized by low liquid adhesion and anti-staining performance. Furthermore, the low friction coefficient and excellent scratch resistance make them attractive as solid lubricants. The inherent texture of the coatings positively affects their biocompatibility. In fact, they are able to promote the proliferation and differentiation of myoblast stem cells. Optically-transparent and biocompatible coatings that simultaneously possess characteristics of low water contact angle hysteresis, low friction and mechanical robustness can find application in a wide range of technological sectors, from the construction and automotive industries to electronic and biomedical devices.

Scaffold network based on CS and SA demonstrated to be an effective support to enhance and to allow fibroblasts and endothelial cells (human umbilical vein endothelial cells, HUVEC) adhesion and proliferation. In particular, it could be hypothesized that cell adhesion was facilitated by the synergic effect of PL and CS. Although further in vivo evaluation is needed, on the basis of in vitro results, PL embedded scaffolds seem promising systems for skin wound healing.

Cowlesite, ideally Ca 6 Al 12 Si 18 O 60 ·36H 2 O, is to date the only natural zeolite whose structure could not be determined by X-ray methods. In this paper, we present the ab initio structure determination of this mineral obtained by three-dimensional (3D) electron diffraction data collected from single-crystal domains of a few hundreds of nanometers. The structure of cowlesite consists of an alternation of rigid zeolitic layers and low-density interlayers supported by water and cations. This makes cowlesite the only two-dimensional (2D) zeolite known in nature. When cowlesite gets in contact with a transmission electron microscope vacuum, a phase transition to a conventional 3D zeolite framework occurs in few seconds. The original cowlesite structure could be preserved only by adopting a cryo-plunging sample preparation protocol usually employed for macromolecular samples. Such a protocol allows the investigation by 3D electron diffraction of very hydrated and very beam-sensitive inorganic materials, which were previously considered intractable by transmission electron microscopy crystallographic methods.