Engineering Commons^™

Quantification Of Volatile Residuals In Polydioxanone By Gas Chromatography: Method Development, Validation And Implementation, Clayton Joseph Culbreath

All Theses

Bioresorbable polymers are increasingly utilized for implantable medical devices to avoid complications related to explant and/or long term responses to foreign materials. As with all polymeric materials, residual levels of unreacted monomer, and other volatiles, drastically affect the mechanical and chemical properties as well as the parameters required to process the material into a device. The 1,4-dioxane-2-one (PDO) monomer is a six membered ring that forms an ether-ester polymer via ring-opening polymerization (ROP) with intermediate absorption rate properties that are ideal for numerous implant situations. Developing devices using poly(1,4-dioxane-2-one) (PPDO, PDO, PDX, PPDX, or PDS) is complicated by residual levels …

Rare Earth Emissions From Polyethylene Terephthalate Fiber, Joshua Jenkins Furtick

All Theses

Rare earth-polymer blends can be useful in many applications including safety, security, displays, and novelty. Polyester, specifically polyethylene terephthalate, is a ubiquitous material in the world today and offers many opportunities for the usefulness of visible light rare earth emissions.

In this work we have attempted to incorporate rare earth complexes with polyester yarn using various methods including coating, extrusion, and dyeing, with the latter having the most success. Nanoparticles were used initially for these experiments, however certain limitations of the particles could not be overcome, for example the size of the particles and the incompatibility of the inorganic matrix …