Influence of environment on wetting properties of common polymers for Skin-Device Interfaces
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Many non-invasive personal healthcare devices suffer from poor, occlusive skin contact. This disrupts physiological interface microclimate and device functionality. Surface engineering can provide multifunctional surfaces which precisely control and regulate microclimates at the skin-device interface. The regulation efficacy through surface engineering is contingent upon both the material and intrinsic surface properties, as well as the topology design. In particular, the wettability plays a crucial role in regulating these microclimate conditions. Before introducing surface engineering for developing innovative skin-device interfaces, the wetting behaviour of the materials needs to be determined. The polymeric materials polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) are commonly used in non-invasive personal healthcare devices. Existing studies indicate an impact of temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the wetting properties, as characterised by the contact angle (CA). Nevertheless, most studies have been conducted under ambient conditions (20°C and 50% RH), on different materials, or are in disagreement regarding the climate dependence of polymer wettability. This study applies advanced characterisation and evaluation methods to set a reference for the wetting behaviour of the mentioned polymers in their untreated state. A custom climate chamber was designed and built in which temperature and humidity can be separately controlled. In this chamber, droplets can be applied on a surface, after which the CA can be measured using a goniometer. In this controlled environment, the CA of PP, PVC, PE and PDMS substrates was determined as a function of relative humidity (RH 10 to 90%) and temperature (5 to 50°C). The systematic and comprehensive study shows that although the CA is significantly different for almost all polymers, there is no significant dependence of the CA on either humidity or temperature for PP, PVC and PE. The water CA of PDMS exhibits a linear temperature dependency at a constant RH, while the CA measured with diiodomethane suggests a linearly inverse dependence on RH. We conclude that the influence of these climate conditions on the wettability of these polymers is negligible. For improvement of the device- skin interface we will therefore focus on engineering surface engineering strategies for microclimate regulation.Many non-invasive personal healthcare devices suffer from poor, occlusive skin contact. This disrupts physiological interface microclimate and device functionality. Surface engineering can provide multifunctional surfaces which precisely control and regulate microclimates at the skin-device interface. The regulation efficacy through surface engineering is contingent upon both the material and intrinsic surface properties, as well as the topology design. In particular, the wettability plays a crucial role in regulating these microclimate conditions. Before introducing surface engineering for developing innovative skin-device interfaces, the wetting behaviour of the materials needs to be determined. The polymeric materials polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) are commonly used in non-invasive personal healthcare devices. Existing studies indicate an impact of temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the wetting properties, as characterised by the contact angle (CA). Nevertheless, most studies have been conducted under ambient conditions (20°C and 50% RH), on different materials, or are in disagreement regarding the climate dependence of polymer wettability. This study applies advanced characterisation and evaluation methods to set a reference for the wetting behaviour of the mentioned polymers in their untreated state. A custom climate chamber was designed and built in which temperature and humidity can be separately controlled. In this chamber, droplets can be applied on a surface, after which the CA can be measured using a goniometer. In this controlled environment, the CA of PP, PVC, PE and PDMS substrates was determined as a function of relative humidity (RH 10 to 90%) and temperature (5 to 50°C). The systematic and comprehensive study shows that although the CA is significantly different for almost all polymers, there is no significant dependence of the CA on either humidity or temperature for PP, PVC and PE. The water CA of PDMS exhibits a linear temperature dependency at a constant RH, while the CA measured with diiodomethane suggests a linearly inverse dependence on RH. We conclude that the influence of these climate conditions on the wettability of these polymers is negligible. For improvement of the device- skin interface we will therefore focus on engineering surface engineering strategies for microclimate regulation.Many non-invasive personal healthcare devices suffer from poor, occlusive skin contact. This disrupts physiological interface microclimate and device functionality. Surface engineering can provide multifunctional surfaces which precisely control and regulate microclimates at the skin-device interface. The regulation efficacy through surface engineering is contingent upon both the material and intrinsic surface properties, as well as the topology design. In particular, the wettability plays a crucial role in regulating these microclimate conditions. Before introducing surface engineering for developing innovative skin-device interfaces, the wetting behaviour of the materials needs to be determined. The polymeric materials polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) are commonly used in non-invasive personal healthcare devices. Existing studies indicate an impact of temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the wetting properties, as characterised by the contact angle (CA). Nevertheless, most studies have been conducted under ambient conditions (20°C and 50% RH), on different materials, or are in disagreement regarding the climate dependence of polymer wettability. This study applies advanced characterisation and evaluation methods to set a reference for the wetting behaviour of the mentioned polymers in their untreated state. A custom climate chamber was designed and built in which temperature and humidity can be separately controlled. In this chamber, droplets can be applied on a surface, after which the CA can be measured using a goniometer. In this controlled environment, the CA of PP, PVC, PE and PDMS substrates was determined as a function of relative humidity (RH 10 to 90%) and temperature (5 to 50°C). The systematic and comprehensive study shows that although the CA is significantly different for almost all polymers, there is no significant dependence of the CA on either humidity or temperature for PP, PVC and PE. The water CA of PDMS exhibits a linear temperature dependency at a constant RH, while the CA measured with diiodomethane suggests a linearly inverse dependence on RH. We conclude that the influence of these climate conditions on the wettability of these polymers is negligible. For improvement of the device- skin interface we will therefore focus on engineering surface engineering strategies for microclimate regulation.Many non-invasive personal healthcare devices suffer from poor, occlusive skin contact. This disrupts physiological interface microclimate and device functionality. Surface engineering can provide multifunctional surfaces which precisely control and regulate microclimates at the skin-device interface. The regulation efficacy through surface engineering is contingent upon both the material and intrinsic surface properties, as well as the topology design. In particular, the wettability plays a crucial role in regulating these microclimate conditions. Before introducing surface engineering for developing innovative skin-device interfaces, the wetting behaviour of the materials needs to be determined. The polymeric materials polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE) are commonly used in non-invasive personal healthcare devices. Existing studies indicate an impact of temperature and relative humidity (RH) on the wetting properties, as characterised by the contact angle (CA). Nevertheless, most studies have been conducted under ambient conditions (20°C and 50% RH), on different materials, or are in disagreement regarding the climate dependence of polymer wettability. This study applies advanced characterisation and evaluation methods to set a reference for the wetting behaviour of the mentioned polymers in their untreated state. A custom climate chamber was designed and built in which temperature and humidity can be separately controlled. In this chamber, droplets can be applied on a surface, after which the CA can be measured using a goniometer. In this controlled environment, the CA of PP, PVC, PE and PDMS substrates was determined as a function of relative humidity (RH 10 to 90%) and temperature (5 to 50°C). The systematic and comprehensive study shows that although the CA is significantly different for almost all polymers, there is no significant dependence of the CA on either humidity or temperature for PP, PVC and PE. The water CA of PDMS exhibits a linear temperature dependency at a constant RH, while the CA measured with diiodomethane suggests a linearly inverse dependence on RH. We conclude that the influence of these climate conditions on the wettability of these polymers is negligible. For improvement of the device- skin interface we will therefore focus on engineering surface engineering strategies for microclimate regulation.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".