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The survival rate and storage period of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are affected by numerous factors in the vacuum freeze-drying process. Hence, optimizing the freeze-drying process and storage conditions is an effective method to improve the survival rate and prolong the storage period of LAB. This paper reviews the factors that influence the survival rate of LAB during the vacuum freeze-drying process and explores how to optimize the freeze-drying process and storage conditions to improve the survival rate and extend the storage period of LAB. We expect that this review will provide a basis and reference for the preparation of lyophilized LAB formulations with high activity and good storage stability.

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Herein, fibroin, polylactide (PLA), and carbon are investigated for their suitability as biocompatible and biodegradable materials for amperometric biosensors. For this purpose, screen‐printed carbon electrodes on the biodegradable substrates fibroin and PLA are modified with a glucose oxidase membrane and then encapsulated with the biocompatible material Ecoflex. The influence of different curing parameters of the carbon electrodes on the resulting biosensor characteristics is studied. The morphology of the electrodes is investigated by scanning electron microscopy, and the biosensor performance is examined by amperometric measurements of glucose (0.5–10 mM) in phosphate buffer solution, pH 7.4, at an applied potential of 1.2 V versus a Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Instead of Ecoflex, fibroin, PLA, and wound adhesive are tested as alternative encapsulation compounds: a series of swelling tests with different fibroin compositions, PLA, and Ecoflex has been performed before characterizing the most promising candidates by chronoamperometry. Therefore, the carbon electrodes are completely covered with the particular encapsulation material. Chronoamperometric measurements with H2O2 concentrations between 0.5 and 10 mM enable studying the leakage current behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intestinal flora regulation is an effective method to intervene and treat diseases associated with microbiome imbalance. In addition to conventional probiotic supplement, phage delivery has recently exhibited great prospect in modifying gut flora composition and regulating certain gene expression of gut bacteria. However, the protein structure of phage is vulnerable to external factors during storage and delivery, which leads to the loss of infection ability and flora regulation function. Encapsulation strategy provides an effective solution for improving phage stability and precisely controlling delivery dosage. Different functional materials including enzyme-responsive and pH-responsive polymers have been used to construct encapsulation carriers to protect phages from harsh conditions and release them in the colon. Meanwhile, diverse carriers showed different characteristics in structure and function, which influenced their protective effect and delivery efficiency. This review systematically summarizes recent research progress on the phage encapsulation and delivery, with an emphasis on function properties of carrier systems in the protection effect and colon-targeted delivery. The present review may provide a theoretical reference for the encapsulation and delivery of phage as microbiota modulator, so as to expedite the development of functional material and delivery carrier, as well as the advances in practical application of intestinal flora regulation. [Display omitted] • Phage delivery has been proposed as a new strategy for gut flora regulation in situ. • The manipulation mechanism of phage on intestinal flora was presented in detail. • Systematic analysis showed gastric acid was the most crucial factor for phage delivery. • Single materials and encapsulation vectors face inherent technical limitations. • Further important research directions for phage delivery were prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have increased their power conversion efficiency above 18% thanks to the use of non-fullerene acceptors in binary or ternary blends or in tandem configurations. In this article, a study on the lifetime of P3HT:O-IDTBR bulk heterojunction OSCs on ITO-free flexible substrates is presented. A direct comparison of glass–glass and plastic–plastic encapsulation performance, with a special focus on its effect on the lifetime of the devices after degradation procedures, has been carried out complying with the ISOS protocols for organic photovoltaic devices. The manufactured OSCs with 1 cm2 active layer have power conversion efficiencies ranging from 1.9 to 3.4% depending on the encapsulant material, encapsulation process, and substrate. An exponential degradation rate has been found, with a similar functional behavior for glass and plastic differing in the degradation constants, which ranges from k = 0.01 to 0.002 h−1. Only in one case, the ISOS-T3 essay for plastic encapsulation, a double exponential process, was observed with degradation rates of k1 = 0.03 h−1 and a second slower process with k2 = 0.001 h−1. The longest achieved T80 lifetime is 86 h for glass-encapsulated devices under an accelerated ISOS-T3 protocol.

Ever increasing energy demand ever encourage for new energy production and conservation. In the present work, the cascaded latent heat solar thermal energy storage system has been developed to deliver the heat at different temperature limits and its performance on the improvement of heat transfer characteristics are studied with the use of multiple phase change material (PCM) with various encapsulation arrangements. The storage system consists of three different PCM which have different melting temperatures such as D-mannitol, D-sorbitol, and paraffin wax. Each PCM is encapsulated in different materials of spherical balls like copper, aluminum, and brass. Permanent welding of fins, inside the encapsulated balls of type rectangular, annular and pin is done for enhanced heat transfer. This work investigates for the best combination of fins which may allow the highest heat transfer rate for the least cost. It has been concluded that the transfer of energy is the highest in the use of copper balls for encapsulation of PCM with the attachment of annular fin inside the balls. With respect to energy cost per kJ of heat transfer, the PCM encapsulated in aluminum balls with annular fins may be preferred. However, in all the combinations, to gain higher efficiency of the system proper arrangements of all system components very close to each other is essential to the provision of perfect insulated storage tanks and the components of the piping circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we prepared the light emitting diode (LED) encapsulant with self-adhesion and high refractive index. In order to improve adhesion properties, we synthesized a series of multifunctional polysiloxanes with different contents of epoxy groups via the sol-gel condensation of methylvinyldimethoxysilane, diphenylsilanediol and 3-glycidoxypropyldimethoxymethylsilane. The structures of epoxyphenylvinyl silicone (EPVS) resins were confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier-transform infrared. The effect of epoxy group content on the adhesion property of EPVS resins was fully studied. The performances of the LED encapsulation materials based on EPVS resins were investigated in detail. These self-adhesive encapsulating materials showed excellent thermal stability, a high refractive index of 1.55 and good adhesive property. These EPVSs can be used as an adhesion promoter for LED encapsulation materials. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report on the stability of p-type passivated emitter and rear cells under ultraviolet (UV) exposure with various silicone nitride passivation coatings and embedded in different encapsulation polymers. Our results reveal that UV transparent polymers can result in a module power loss of up to 6% under a UV irradiation dose of 497 kWh/m2. We show that the degradation in power is caused by a reduction in open circuit voltage. This loss is related to an increased recombination in the cell, which we ascribe to a degradation of the surface passivation. With ray tracing simulations, we determine the number of photons reaching the passivation interface. Assuming that all photons with energies above 3.5 eV de-passivate the interface is in agreement with our experimental results. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we applied multi-criteria methods of decision in order to establish the best encapsulation material to be used in producing photovoltaic modules. The encapsulation materials play an important role in establishing the PV module performance, especially if referring to their ability to increase their life time. For our study, we have considered the most widely used encapsulation materials available on the market, such as Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA), Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB), Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), PolyDimethylsiloxane (PDMS), Ionomer. Amongst of their basic properties, we took into consideration the light transmittance, refractive index, thermal conductivity, volume resistivity, and water vapor transmission rate. In the paper herein, two multi-criteria methods, namely the Simple Additive Weighting method and ELECTRE (ELimination and Choice Expressing Reality) method are applied in order to establish a hierarchy of the mentioned encapsulation materials. It is also shown that the final hierarchy of materials depends on the importance given to the criteria involved. By considering all the mentioned properties and the economical aspect, in particular the cost, the first position in the hierarchy is occupied by EVA. If the cost is eliminated, the hierarchy changes and EVA becomes outranked by other materials, as PDMS and Ionomer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The viability of probiotic bacteria in six food-grade polymers, at two concentrations, was evaluated in order to predict their feasibility as materials for bacterium immobilisation. Alginate and whey proteins were the most adequate polymers, except for Lactobacillus acidophilus Ki and Lactobacillus casei 01 at 2% (m/v) alginate. Xanthan gum appeared to be a potential vector for three strains. L-carrageenan was adequate for both Bifidobacterium strains, but not for Lactobacillus at 2% (m/v). Bifidobacterium strains were not negatively affected by cellulose acetate phthalate, while the opposite held for L. acidophilus strains. Chitosan was the poorest polymer for immobilisation of probiotic bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularization of personalized wearable devices has accelerated the development of flexible/stretchable supercapacitors (SCs) that possess remarkable features of miniaturization, high security, and easy integration to build an all-in-one integrated system, and realize the functions of comfortable, noninvasive and continuous health monitoring, motion records, and information acquisition, etc. This Review presents a brief phylogeny of flexible/stretchable SCs, represented by planar micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) and 1D fibrous SCs. The latest progress and advantages of different flexible/stretchable/self-healing substrate, solid-state electrolyte and electrode materials for the fabrication of wearable SCs devices are summarized. The various configurations used in planar MSCs and 1D fibrous SCs aiming at the improvement of performance are also discussed. In addition, from the viewpoint of practical value and large-scale production, a survey of integrated systems, from different types of SC powered wearable sensing (gas, pressure, tactile…) systems, wearable all-in-one systems (including energy harvest, storage, and functional groups), to device packaging is presented. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives of wearable SCs are also considered., (© 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)