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- Author or Editor: A. Riga x
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Abstract
Snake skin is a viable and readily available material as a model for human skin. Pharmaceutical applications use shed snake skin to study the effects of sunscreens on exposure to UV radiation (e.g. benzophenone on Boa integument). In order to understand the effects of radiation or drug transport through this model skin, one must determine its basic physical properties. This preliminary study evaluated two types of snake skin, namely Cuban Boa a 'dark' skin (Epicrates angulifer) and Green tree python a 'light' skin (Morelia viridis). Previous studies by other investigators have used pig, rabbit and snake skin as a human skin substitute. The structure of both snake skins was comparable based on IR spectroscopy and were functionally amino acids and moisture. Photomicrography by light and scanning electron microscopy revealed strong anatomic similarities. Morphologically there were two structures visible, namely a cellular and hinge-fibrous area. The thermal techniques indicated a phase transition at 35-75°C, which is associated with lipid melting. There was an 8 and 12% mass loss for the light skin and dark skin, respectively, which is interpreted, in part, as moisture loss at <100°C. The physical and analytical properties establish a base line that will be used in the future to differentiate various sunscreen types, such as benzophenone and octyl salicylate. Study was also done to determine the effect of an application of a commercially available sunscreen using SEM.
Abstract
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a thermal analytical tool for preformulation studies. Extrapolated melting temperature (T P) and heat of fusion (ΔH f) can be used as parameters for optimizing the DSC performance. Two model pharmaceuticals acetaminophen and nicotinamide are used in this study. Using a factorial design for the experimental model and matrix analysis the results, the effect of sample mass, heating rate and the nitrogen flow rate were evaluated on the ΔH f values and T P values. Two levels for each of the procedural variables were used as a balanced experimental design with two sample sizes, two heating rates and two nitrogen flow rates. It was found that the change in the heating rate caused significant changes in the ΔH f values but not the T p values for acetaminophen. However, no significant effect was found for the T p value but ΔH f value was affected to a certain extent for nicotinamide.
Abstract
This project investigated the interaction between poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) and several therapeutic agents. Low percentage crystallinity PLLA (melt-pressed, molded and drawn) was studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to characterize the crystallinity and thermal properties in a thermal cycling process. Repeatable melting and crystallization events were observed. The thermal properties of a drug-polymer combination using PLLA and an acidic, basic, neutral and zwitterionic material were investigated. A sufficient quantity of the drug must be present in the polymer to be observed thermally. Release of atropine sulfate from a PLLA tablet showed a two-phase process.
Abstract
Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) is a semi-crystalline, optically active, biodegradable, and biocompatible polymer that has been utilized extensively in biomedical applications as an implantable artificial cell scaffold material. In its crystalline form, PLLA is piezoelectric and it has been implicated in the enhancement of electromechanically induced osteogenesis in vivo. In its amorphous state, however, PLLA does not exhibit piezoelectricity. By uniaxially cold-drawing the polymer, PLLA can be endowed with varying degrees of piezoelectricity. It is important to understand the crystalline architecture of drawn PLLA so that the osteogenic potential imparted by piezoelectricity, if any, can be differentiated from the effects of sample crystallinity. In our work we investigate the induced crystallinity for samples of drawn PLLA at draw ratios between 1.0 and 5.5 by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). As long-range molecular ordering occurs along the draw axis, we observe an increase in the average percent crystallinity up to a draw ratio of 5.0 and a slight decrease at a draw ratio of 5.5. More importantly, we observe significant heterogeneity in the crystalline content along the draw axis of standard dumbbells cut from PLLA and cold-drawn to representative draw ratios of 2.5 and 4.0. On average, the highest percent crystallinity occurs nearest the dumbbell center, but the maximum crystallinity is independent of draw ratio. Therefore, the draw ratio should not be considered a semi-quantitative estimate of localized PLLA crystallinity and point-to-point analysis of crystallinity in PLLA samples is required for constructing scaffolds with enhanced cell growth properties.
Abstract
The present study was aimed at determining the kinetics of evaporation and establishing vapor pressure curves for both single and multi-component systems by thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Essential oils (e.g. lavender oil, orange oil, clove oil and eucalyptus oil, etc.) are typically multi-component systems consisting of various volatile pure components (e.g. linalyl acetate, limonene, cinnamaldehyde, etc.) which resemble single component systems. In this study linalyl acetate was taken as the calibration compound for TG. The vapor pressure curves for the pure substances were plotted using TG and vapor pressure plots for clove oil and eucalyptus oil were constructed using DSC. The thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of the pure compounds were compared to that of the multi-component systems to quantitatively and qualitatively measure the influence of different compounds on each other. The k-value from the vapor pressure data for linalyl acetate was calculated as 112006 Pa kg0.5mol0.5s-1 m-2 K-0.5. The vapor pressure values were used to determine the Antoine constants using the SPSS 10.0 software.
Abstract
This study attempts to identify the degradative process which folic acid undergoes in the solid-state under thermal stress. In order to facilitate the process, the various pieces of the chemical structure, namely, p-amino benzoic acid, pterin and glutamic acid as both its d- and l-isomers were investigated as separate entities. These structured solid-state pieces were then compared to the composite solid state folic acid degradative curves in order to identify the peaks seen and provide direction for the interpolation of the degradative mechanism. It was observed that none of the structural pieces could be superimposed as assumed earlier and hence an attempt was made to identify the decomposition products using various analytical techniques such as infrared spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction which suggested that the glutamic acid fragment is lost first as evidenced by acid loss and amide enhancement in the IR spectra. The vitamin was ultimately degrading to carbon fragments and that further identification was not necessary.
Abstract
Five poorly soluble drugs namely hydrochlorothiazide, menadione, propylthiouracil, quinine sulfate and sulfamerazine were used to evaluate the ability of an index (I c) based on the van't Hoff equation to predict the eutectic composition at a higher heating rate than previously published. The term I c is a dimensionless index which has been defined in the literature and is used to predict eutectic composition. This current work uses this study to determine if the correlation holds true at the higher heating rate of 10C min-1. The maximum deviation was observed for quinine sulfate, for which the predicted eutectic composition was 10% lower than what was observed with the DSC. It can be concluded that the Index developed here has a good correlation with the experimentally determined eutectic composition.
Abstract
A commercial set of polymers has been characterized by TG-DTA, DSC, TMA, FTIR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). Thermal and mechanical stability, as well as the polymer glass transition temperature,T g, and melt temperature,T m, have been documented. There is a good correlation between measuredT g andT m values and published data. The degree of polymer crystallinity for polyethylene has been verified by XRD. The credibility and stability of these reference polymers is based on a comparison of their thermal properties, over a wide range of temperatures from two versions of a reference set, published in 1979 (A) and 1994 (B). The thermal properties and crystallinity of these polymers have stood the test of time and are reliable, readily available and consistent.
Abstract
Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) is an optically active, biocompatible and biodegradable polymer that has been widely investigated as an artificial cell scaffold material. In its most crystalline form, PLLA is highly anisotropic and is one of the most piezoelectric polymers known. Conversely, amorphous PLLA exhibits little, if any, piezoelectric behavior. Compression molded PLLA films can be endowed with varying amounts of crystalline character and piezoelectricity by uniaxially stretching the polymer in a hot air bath. Understanding the precise crystalline architecture of PLLA that results from tensile drawing is important for constructing cell scaffolds that have highly tailored biodegradation and cell guiding properties. In our work here, we investigate the changes in the thermal properties of PLLA at draw ratios between 1.0 and 5.5 using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The crystallinity of the compression molded undrawn starting material is characterized using X-ray diffraction. Our DSC results show an increase in percent crystallinity with increasing draw up to a draw ratio of 4.0. At greater draw ratios, there is a decrease in the crystalline character exhibited by PLLA.
Abstract
Enhanced oil recovery process is based on the injection of chemical products (e.g. polymers, surfactants, gases) or thermal energy (originating from the injection of e.g. steam, hot water, in situ combustion) to recover crude oil. One of these processes use polymer solution to mobilize the oil in the reservoir. In this work the thermal decomposition kinetic of xanthan gum, guar gum and a blend (50/50 mass/mass%) was studied according to Ozawa–Flynn–Wall method. According to the kinetic analysis, the studied systems were copmpatible. The rheological behavior of the samples was studied in distilled water and seawater at different temperatures. Only the blend was studied in distilled water presented synergism (enhancement in material properties like stability and viscosity) which was confirmed through rheology.
