This year, the Institute conducted approximately 50 projects in the areas of pharmaceutics, medicine, agriculture, nutrition, food, environmental protection, product safety, adhesives, and polymers. The Institute uses physical and chemical techniques to manufacture a variety of water soluble and insoluble capsule shell materials that offer specialized release characteristics. SwRI researchers designed three microcapsule formulations that deliver the corrosion inhibitor to a crack site at three diffusion rates. Fatigue and stress-induced crack tests are in progress at NAWC to evaluate the effectiveness of the new coatings. In another project for NAWC, the Institute developed a one-part epoxy adhesive for use in aircraft repair.
Encapsulated curatives keep the adhesive stable at ambient conditions.
With a commercial partner, SwRI has filed a joint patent for the encapsulation process, which isolates the curative from the epoxy resin until heat is applied. Paste and film forms of the adhesive have been delivered to NAWC for testing. Results of in vitro tests showed high biomembrane diffusion rates for nutrients essential to islet cell viability as well as insignificant permeation of larger molecules, such as immunorejection-causing antibodies. SwRI is working with researchers at the Pittsburgh Transplantation Institute to harvest pancreatic islets and conduct preclinical biocompatibility studies. In vivo studies using microbeads prepared from an alginate-based biopolymer have shown excellent biocompatibility in rats.