Highly magnified micrographs are part of the majority of publications in materials science and related fields. They are often the basis for discussions and far-reaching conclusions on the nature of the specimen. In many cases, reviewers demand and researchers deliver only the bare minimum of micrographs to substantiate the research hypothesis at hand. In this work, we use heterogeneous poly(acrylonitrile) nanofiber nonwovens with embedded nanoparticles to demonstrate how an insufficient or biased micrograph selection may lead to erroneous conclusions. Different micrographs taken by transmission electron microscopy and helium ion microscopy with sometimes contradictory implications were analyzed and used as a basis for micromagnetic simulations. With this, we try to raise awareness for the possible consequences of cherry-picking for the reliability of scientific literature.

The combination of textiles and three-dimensional printing offers a wide range of research and application areas, but only publications in combination with fused deposition modeling processes can be found so far. In this article the possibility of printing resin directly on textiles in the stereolithography process is presented. A broad spectrum of textiles and surfaces is examined to clearly present the feasibility. It was found that printing directly on most textiles can be performed without major difficulties, while problems were only observed on smooth surfaces and coatings on textiles.

Electrospinning can be used to create nanofibers from diverse polymers in which also other materials can be embedded. Inclusion of magnetic nanoparticles, for example, results in preparation of magnetic nanofibers which are usually isotropically distributed on the substrate. One method to create a preferred direction is using a spinning cylinder as the substrate, which is not always possible, especially in commercial electrospinning machines. Here, another simple technique to partly align magnetic nanofibers is investigated. Since electrospinning works in a strong electric field and the fibers thus carry charges when landing on the substrate, using partly conductive substrates leads to a current flow through the conductive parts of the substrate which, according to Ampère’s right-hand grip rule, creates a magnetic field around it. We observed that this magnetic field, on the other hand, can partly align magnetic nanofibers perpendicular to the borders of the current flow conductor. We report on the first observations of electrospinning magnetic nanofibers on partly conductive substrates with some of the conductive areas additionally being grounded, resulting in partly oriented magnetic nanofibers.

Keratin is one of the most important protein materials and can act as a sustainable biopolymer for manifold applications. This paper reports on a sustainable extraction method for keratin from wool fiber materials. The use of this extracted keratin for polymer film preparation and preparation of nano-composite materials by electrospinning is investigated. The preparation of keratin films is done in combination with the both biopolymers alginate and pectin. Keratin nanofibers are prepared in combination with the polymer polyacrylonitrile PAN. A view on antibacterial properties of the prepared films is given. As further analytic methods, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are used. Finally, the preparation of new keratin containing materials is described, which may be used in future for biomedical applications.

To overcome the long-term stability problems of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) due to solvent evaporation and leakage, gelling the electrolyte with polymers is an appropriate option. Especially for future applications of textile-based DSSCs, which require cost-effective and environmentally friendly materials, such an improvement of the electrolyte is necessary. Therefore, the temporal progressions of efficiencies and fill factors of non-toxic glass-based DSSCs resulting from different gel electrolytes with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) are investigated over 52 days comparatively. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) proved to be a suitable non-toxic solvent for the proposed gel electrolyte without ionic liquids. A PEO concentration of 17.4 wt% resulted in an optimal compromise with a relatively high efficiency over the entire period. Lower concentrations resulted in higher efficiencies during the first days but in a poorer long-term stability, whereas a higher PEO concentration resulted in an overall lower efficiency. Solvent remaining in the gel electrolyte during application was found advantageous compared to previous solvent evaporation. In contrast to a commercial liquid electrolyte, the long-term stability regarding the efficiency was improved successfully with a similar fill factor and thus equal quality.

3D printing is nowadays used for many applications far beyond pure rapid prototyping. As tools to prepare custom-made objects which may be highly complex, different 3D printing techniques have emerged into areas of application where the mechanical, thermal, optical and other properties have to meet high requirements. Amongst them, applications for space, e.g. for microsatellites, make extreme demands regarding the stability under high temperatures. Nevertheless, polymeric 3D printed materials have several advantages for space application in comparison with metal objects. Here we thus investigate the impact of temperatures up to 85 °C and 185 °C, respectively, on typical 3D printing materials for fused deposition modeling or stereolithography (SLA) with inexpensive 3D printers. The materials are found to differ strongly in terms of mechanical properties and dimensional stability after the treatment at a higher temperature, with SLA resins and co-polyester showing the best dimensional stability, while acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene and SLA resin after long UV post-treatment has the best mechanical properties.