UV curing Archivi – Photopolymer

Light processable hydrogels were successfully fabricated by utilizing maize starch as raw material. To render light processability, starch was gelatinized and methacrylated by simple reaction with methacrylic anhydride. The methacrylated starch was then evaluated for its photocuring reactivity and 3D printability by digital light processing (DLP). Hydrogels with good mechanical properties and biocompatibility were obtained by direct curing from aqueous solution containing lithium phenyl-2,4,6-trimethylbenzoylphosphinate (LAP) as photo-initiator. The properties of the hydrogels were tunable by simply changing the concentration of starch in water. Photo-rheology showed that the formulations with 10 or 15 wt% starch started curing immediately and reached G’ plateau after only 60 s, while it took 90 s for the 5 wt% formulation. The properties of the photocured hydrogels were further characterized by rheology, compressive tests, and swelling experiments. Increasing the starch content from 10 to 15 wt% increased the compressive stiffness from 13 to 20 kPa. This covers the stiffness of different body tissues giving promise for the use of the hydrogels in tissue engineering applications. Good cell viability with human fibroblast cells was confirmed for all three starch hydrogel formulations indicating no negative effects from the methacrylation or photo-crosslinking reaction. Finally, the light processability of methacrylated starch by digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing directly from aqueous solution was successfully demonstrated. Altogether the results are promising for future application of the hydrogels in tissue engineering and as cell carriers

11 October 2020

Light Processable Starch Hydrogels

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10 April 2020

UV-Cured ultrafiltration membranes

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24 March 2020

Graduation day

Even if this difficult moment for Italy and the entire world, we are proud and happy to celebrate the graduation in Materials Science of our students at Politecnico di Torino. It was an emotional moment for my students and me. Lorenzo Pezzana, Daniele Maugeri, Corrado Dall’Argine, and Valentina Cavallo showed their excellent works. Congrats also to my students Martina Cattaruzza for her graduation in Chemical Engineering.

graduations

Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

18 February 2020

Second day at QUT

Second meeting with the PhD students at QUT, enjoying the summer weather talking about UV-light. Thanks to prof. Christopher Barner-Kowollik for hosting me in his amazing group.

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Die Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH (PCCL) ist das führende österreichische Zentrum für kooperative Forschung im Bereich Kunststofftechni

14 January 2020

Today at Polymer Competence Center in Leoben

My travel continues from Wien to Leoben for another seminar on photopolymerization and its applications. Thanks to Prof. Sandra Schlögl for inviting me to PCCL and all the amazing students I have met.

newsfeed, teaching

13 January 2020

Seminar at TU Wien

Today I held my seminar at TU Wien. I discussed the power of photopolymerization with fantastic students.

seminars, teaching

5 November 2019

Nicolò Razza won the “Quality Award – Year 2018” in Materials Science

Nicolò Razza a former group member of Photopolymer Lab and now Postdoctoral Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), has been awarded by the Doctoral School of our institute with the “Quality Award – Year 2018” for the excellence in research.

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Marco Sangermano, Minna Hakkareinen and Karin Odelius

2 November 2019

At the Taishan Academic Forum

Enjoying the Taishan Academic Forum with my colleagues Minna Hakkareinen and Karin Odelius. Interesting conference, nice people and new synergies between China and Europe.

conferences

3D‐Printing of High‐κ Thiol‐Ene Resins with Spiro‐Orthoesters as Anti‐Shrinkage Additive

25 October 2019

Anti‐shrinkage monomers for 3D-printing

In our latest paper we have worked for reducing shrinkage of polymeric 3D-printed materials. Congrats to Phillip Marx, Angelo Romano, and all co-authors.

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14 October 2019

Photopolymer Lab at the VII International Baekeland Symposium

Photopolymer Lab at the VII International Baekeland Symposium. Marco Sangermano will hold a speech on UV-activated frontal polymerization of epoxy composites.

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