• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.1270-1280
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• 2001

In this research of biodegradable polymers, it is essential to investigate the relation between biodegradability and molecular structure such as chemical constitution, hydrophilicity, molecular weight, crystallinity, chain orientation, and so on. It is also expected that hydrophilicity of polymer can affect biodegradability because biodegradation occurs with the help of enzymes and microorganisms. This study is to investigate the effect of hydrophilicity on biodegradability of polyesters. Hydrophilicity was varied by adding 5~30 mol% of amide groups, since amide groups are hydrophilic and used for improving thermal and mechanical properties. Surface energies and nitrogen contents by ESCA were measured to determine their hydrophilicity. The biodegradation was examined in activated sludge, enzyme and natural soil by $CO_2$evolution, TOC, weight loss, and observation through microscopy. The results showed that hydrophilicity of polyesteramide films increased with the addition of amide, PBAD series of shorter methylene units showed maximum hydrophilicity at 15~20 mol% of amide contents, but PBSE exhibited maximum values at 5~15 mol% of amide contents. The biodegradability increased as the hydrophilicty on surface increased. The biodegradation rate of PBAD series was higher than that of PBSE series. Therefore, it can be concluded that the addition of appropriate contents of hydrophile enhanced the biodegradability of aliphatic polyesters as well as their physical properties. Also, the experimental results revealed the relation between hydrophilicity and biodegradability of polyesteramides.

• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.18-24
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• 2010

PURPOSE. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of etched microgrooves on the hydrophilicity of Ti and osteoblast responses. MATERIAL AND METHODS. Microgrooves were applied on Ti to have 15 and $60{\mu}m$ width, and 3.5 and $10{\mu}m$ depth by photolithography, respectively. Further acid etching was applied to create Ti surfaces with etched microgrooves. Both smooth- and acid-etched Ti were used as the controls. The hydrophilicity of Ti was analyzed by determining contact angles. Cell proliferation and osteogenic activity of MC3T3 mouse preosteoblasts were analyzed by bromodeoxyuridine assay and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity test, respectively. One-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used for statistics. RESULTS. Etched microgrooves significantly increased the hydrophilicity of Ti compared to the smooth Ti. $60{\mu}m$-wide etched microgrooves significantly enhanced cell proliferation, whereas the osteogenic activity showed statistically non-significant differences between groups. Result of the osteogenic activity significantly correlated with those of hydrophilicity and cell proliferation. Hydrophilicity was determined to be an influential factor on osteogenic activity. CONCLUSION. This study indicates that increase in hydrophilicity of Ti caused by etched microgrooves acts as an influential factor on osteogenic activity. However, statistically non-significant increase in the ALP activity suggests further investigation.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.205-212
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• 2014

Polyethersulfone (PES) membranes were modified by various physico-chemical modification methods to enhance the surface hydrophilicity for application as a separation membrane to separate and collect water vapor from the flue gas. Homogeneous PES flat-sheet membranes were prepared and modified by acid treatment, blending and plasma treatment for hydrophilic surface modification. The surface characteristics of the modified PES membranes were evaluated by ATR-FTIR, XPS, SEM and contact angle measurements. No significant change in hydrophilicity was observed for the PES membranes modified by acid treatment with sulfuric acid or blending with various compositions of poloxamer as an amphiphilic PEO-PPO-PEO tri-block copolymer. On the other hand, Ar plasma treatment led to a significant increase in the hydrophilicity of the surface, depending on the plasma treatment time. As a result, the PES membrane could be the most efficiently surface-treated by applying the plasma treatment for enhancing their surface hydrophilicity.

• Clean Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.195-200
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• 2007

This study investigated the flow rate changes of the heterogeneous rectangular microchannels which have different hydrophilic property on the bottom surface. The heterogeneous rectangular microchannel has three native PDMS (poly-dimethyl siloxane) surfaces which were patterned by the soft lithography. PDMS bottom surface was treated by the argon plasma and coated by the allyl alcohol (99%). The channel length was 10, 20 and 30 mm and the channel width was 100, 200 and $300\;{\mu}m$, respectively. Several external voltages were applied to make the fluid flow by the electroosmosis in the microchannel. For the same electric field strength and hydrophilicity of the bottom surface, the flow rate is almost same. This result is matched to the theoretical expectation and confirms that the experimental system is reliable. With increasing the channel width, the flow rate increased for the same hydrophilicity of the bottom surface. The flow rate of the microchannel of higher hydrophilicity was larger than that of the microchannel of lower hydrophilicity. This result implies that the hydrophilicity change of the bottom surface could be applied to control the flow rate in the microchannel.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.461-469
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• 2019

In the present work, we present a new effective hydrophilicity modifier for polysulfone (PSf) membrane. Firstly, amphiphilic nanocellulose (ANC) with different substitution degrees (SD) was synthesized by esterification reaction with nanocellulose (NC) and dodecyl succinic anhydride (DDSA). The SD and morphology of ANC were characterized by titration method and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Then, the polysulfone (PSf)/ANC blend membranes were prepared via an immersion phase inversion method. The influence of SD on the morphology, structure and performances of PSf/ANC blend membrane were carefully investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), mechanical property test, contact angle measuring instrument and filtration experiment. The results showed that the mechanical property, hydrophilicity and anti-fouling property of all the PSf/ANC blend membranes were higher than those of pure PSf membrane and PSf/NC membrane, and the membrane properties were increased with the increasing of SD values. As ANC-4 has the highest SD value, PSf/ANC-4 membrane exhibited the optimal membrane properties. In conclusion, the prepared ANC can be used as an additive to improve the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling properties of polysulfone (PSf) membrane.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2008

Expression of olive flounder hepcidin I (HepI) fused with truncated OmpA signal peptides ($OmpASP_{tr}$) as directional signals does not produce soluble fusion proteins. However, by inserting amino acid segments (xxx) varying in pI and hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity into a leader sequence containing a truncated OmpASP ($OmpASP_{tr}$) and a factor Xa cleavage site (Xa) [$OmpASP_{tr}{\mid}(xxx){\mid}Xa$], we were able in some cases to express soluble recombinant HepI. Soluble expression of the recombinant protein strongly correlated with (xxx) insertions of high pI and hydrophilicity. Therefore, we modified the $OmpASP_{tr}{\mid}(xxx){\mid}Xa$ sequence by inserting Arg and Lys into (xxx) to increase the hydrophilicity of the signal peptide region. These modifications enhanced the expression of soluble recombinant HepI. Hydropathic profile analysis of the $OmpASP_{tr}{\mid}(xxx){\mid}Xa$ HepI fusion proteins revealed that the transmembrane-like domains derived from the $OmpASP_{tr}{\mid}(xxx){\mid}Xa$ sequence were larger than the internal positively charged domain native to HepI. It should therefore be possible to overcome the obstacle of internal positively charged domains to obtain soluble expression of recombinant proteins by monitoring the hydrophilicity and hydropathic profile of the signal peptide region using a computer program.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.391-396
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• 2006

It has been reported that plasma treatments are used to modify surface properties of polymers such as adhesivity hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity. Using plasma treatment, interfacial pro-perty can be introduced to a polymer surface without affecting the desired bulk properties of a material. In this study, commercial polyamide66 (PA66) /polyphenylene (PPE) polymer was modified by plasma treatment under a various gas specious for elimination of organic compound and polymer surface property with hvdrophilicity. PA66/PPE polymer with hydrophilicity was treated by RF plasma vacuum system under a various parameter such as gas specious, processing time and partial pressure. Hydrophilicity of PA66/PPE was confirmed by calculation of the surface free energy from contact angle measurement. The highest surface free energy of $50.03 mJ/m^2$ with the lowest contact angle of $14^{\circ}$ was obtained at plasma process power of 100 W, treatment time of 2 min and $Ar/O_2$ gases of 100 and 200 sccm. Moreover the change of organic compounds on the polymer surface was analyzed by fourier transforms infrared spectrometry (FTIR).

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.4C no.4
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• pp.142-144
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• 2004

To use Poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) for the electrokinetic flow channel, the PDMS surface must be modified to be hydrophilic. With $O_2$ plasma treatment, it is difficult to maintain hydrophilicity for more than one day. In this paper, we present the chemical modification of the PDMS surface using 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) to prolong hydrophilicity lifetime. The oxide radicals generated temporarily on the PDMS surface by $O_2$ plasma are grafted with HEMA. Once the PDMS samples have been grafted, they demonstrate improved hydrophilicity retainment and electroosmotic flow characteristics compared to the untreated PDMS and the oxidized PDMS following the $O_2$ plasma process. This phenomenon was verified by the contact angles, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra and electro osmotic flow rates observed for more than 300 hours.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.8-15
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• 1996

This research was attempted to improve the hydrophilicity of polypropylene(PP) by using low temperature plasma polymerization of acrylic acid(AA) as a starting material. The results of the present study were as follows: The PP films deposited with AA plasma polymer showed excellent hydrophilicity, that the polar parts were about 20 dyn/cm, and also that the surface tensions were about 55 dyn/cm, whereas the disperse parts were not changed. Work of adhesions of the PP films deposited with AA plasma polymer were above 100 erg/ $cm^{2}$. AA plasma polymer formed by low temperature plasma polymerization of acrylic acid(AA) was even thin layer which contained many -OH groups.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.16-20
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• 2009

Films of Poly(ethylene oxide), PEO, were modified to impart hydrophilicity via UV irradiation. The UV irradiation treatment produced new photo-oxidized groups of carbonyl and ether groups as indicated in ATR and ESCA analysis. It was found that water contact angle decreased from $15^{\circ}C$ to $10^{\circ}C$ and total surface energy of PEO increased from 54.2 mN/m to 76.6 mN/m with increasing UV energy, which was attributed to significant contribution of acid base interaction of the photo-oxidized PEO rather than nonpolar interaction originating from the dominant increase in Lewis acid parameter. The increased hydrophilicity and surface energy were also proved by the decreased water wetting time.