Tanja Pivec

The introduction of the Laboratory Manual gives the theoretical bases on cellulose and its derivatives, which are used as starting polymers for the preparation of multifunctional polymers with three different advanced techniques - spin coating, electrospinning and 3D printing. In the following, each technique is presented in a separate Lab Exercise. Each exercise covers the theoretical basics on techniques for polymer processing and methods for their characterisation, with an emphasis on the application of prepared materials. The experimental sections contain all the necessary information needed to implement the exercises, while the added results provide students with the help to implement correct and successful exercises and interpret the results. Oblikovanje, karakterizacija in uporaba tankih filmov, nanovlaken in 3D tiskanih struktur na osnovi celuloze: Navodila za laboratorijske vaje. Uvod v laboratorijski priročnik daje teoretične podlage o celulozi in njenih derivatih, ki se uporabljajo kot začetni polimeri za pripravo večnamenskih polimerov s tremi različnimi naprednimi tehnikami - spin premazom, elektrospinovanjem in 3D-tiskanjem. V nadaljevanju je vsaka tehnika predstavljena v ločeni laboratorijski vaji. Vsaka vaja zajema teoretične osnove tehnik za obdelavo polimerov in metode njihove karakterizacije s poudarkom na uporabi pripravljenih materialov. Eksperimentalni razdelki vsebujejo vse potrebne informacije, potrebne za izvedbo vaj, dodani rezultati pa učencem pomagajo pri izvajanju pravilnih in uspešnih vaj ter interpretirajo rezultate.

The flavonoid rutin (RU) is a known antioxidant substance of plant origin. Its potential application in pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields is, however, limited, due to its low water solubility. This limitation can be overcome by polymerization of the phenolic RU into polyrutin (PR). In this work, an enzymatic polymerization of RU was performed in water, without the addition of organic solvents. Further, the chemical structure of PR was investigated using ¹H NMR, and FTIR spectroscopy. Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) was used to determine the molecular weight of PR, while its acid/base character was studied by potentiometric charge titrations. Additionally, this work investigated the antioxidant and free radical scavenging potential of PR with respect to its chemical structure, based on its ability to (i) scavenge non biological stable free radicals (ABTS), (ii) scavenge biologically important oxidants, such as O₂•, NO•, and OH•, and (iii) chelate Fe²⁺. The influence of PR on fibroblast and HaCaT cell viability was evaluated to confirm the applicability of water soluble PR for wound healing application.