Investigation of structure and mechanical properties of toughened poly(l‐lactide)/thermoplastic poly(ester urethane) blends

In this study, poly(l ‐lactide) (PLA) is melt‐blended with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to modify the brittleness of PLA. An aliphatic ester‐based TPU was selected in order to have an ester sensitivity for degradation and an inherent biocompatibility. Using this compatible TPU, there was no need to apply problematic compatibilizers, so the main positive properties of PLA such as biocompatibility and degradability were not challenged. The detected microstructure of PLA/TPU blends showed that when the TPU content was lower than 25 wt %, the structure appeared as sea‐islands, but when the TPU content was increased, the morphology was converted to a cocontinuous microstructure. A higher interfacial surface area in the blend with 25 wt % TPU (PLA25) resulted in a higher toughness and abrasion resistance. The various analyses confirmed interactions and successful coupling of two phases and confirmed that melt‐blending of PLA with the aliphatic ester‐based TPU is a convenient, cost‐effective, and efficient method to conquer the brittleness of PLA. The prepared blends are general‐purpose plastics, but PLA25 showed an optimum mechanical strength, toughness, and biocompatibility suitable for a wide range of applications. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43104.     

Air-breathing microbial fuel cell with enhanced performance using nanocomposite proton exchange membranes

This work aims to improve the performance of air-breathing microbial fuel cells (MFCs) through using hydrocarbon polymer based nanocomposite proton exchange membranes. Accordingly, nanocomposite membranes based on sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) and montmorillonite (MMT) were investigated for such an application. Although the incorporation of MMT into SPEEK membranes resulted in reduced oxygen permeability as well as proton conductivity, but the overall selectivity was found to be improved. MFC tests revealed that using the optimized nanocomposite membrane (SPEEK-70/MMT-3 wt%) results in a considerably higher open circuit voltage (OCV) compared to the corresponding neat membrane. Moreover, it was found that the SPEEK-70/MMT-3 wt% membrane is able to provide about 40% more power output than Nafion^®117. On the account of high proton conductivity, low oxygen permeability, high electrochemical performance, ease of preparation and low cost, hydrocarbon based nanocomposite PEMs could be considered as promising electrolytes to enhance the performance of MFCs.     

GPC的浓度效应

本实验用东洋曹达 HLC-802A GPC 仪考察了几种窄分布聚苯乙烯样品和两种宽分布聚苯乙烯样品.结果表明:(1)在0.10～0.15g/100ml 浓度以下几乎没有浓度效应.(2)浓度再增加,淋洗体积随之增加。(3)分子量随浓度增加而降低,且峰加宽.(4)分子量大者,浓度效应显著.窄分布样品比宽分布样品明显.(5)流速大,浓度效应显著.     

新型阳离子（甲基丙烯酸季铵盐酯－苯乙烯）共聚物的研究──Ⅰ阳离子（甲基丙烯酸二甲氨基乙酯溴代正丁烷盐－苯乙烯）共聚物的合成与表征

甲基丙烯酸Ｎ，Ｎ－二甲氨乙酯（ＤＭＡＥＭＡ）与溴正丁烷在丙酮溶剂中进行季铵化反应，制得甲基丙烯酸季铵盐酯（ＭＢＤＭ）；然后以ＡＩＢＮ为引发刑，ＭＢＤＭ与苯乙烯（Ｓｔ）在溶液中进行自由基共聚，制得阳离子共聚物Ｐ（ＭＢＤＭ－Ｓｔ），其结构用红外光诸法鉴定，并经￣１ＨＮＭＲ和元素分析表征，证实有可能根据δ２．８～４．１和δ７．２２处两个共振峰确定共聚物的组成．     

中空玻璃微珠填充环氧树脂复合材料

讨论了用发电厂固体废料中的中空玻璃微珠填充Ｅ－４４环氧树脂制备轻质复合材料，实验详尽地考察了微珠填料，ＫＨ－５００偶联剂，固化剂（三乙基四胺，Ｔ－３１，三乙醇及液体四氢苯酐）及低聚酰胺等增韧剂等对所得的复合材料为力学性能的影响，并通过扫描电镜（ＳＥＭ）观察了材料的形态，其结果表明，偶联剂和增韧剂对复合材料的力学性能影响较大，中空玻璃微珠填充环氧树脂赋予基轻质，高强，价廉等特性。     

Transient thermohydraulic computations in steam piping systems and comparison with start-up measurements in BWR plants

The safe design of piping systems in a nuclear power plant requires structural analysis for all specified static and dynamic loads, including fluid dynamic forces due to operational and loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) transients. For the reliable prediction of fluid forces, boundary conditions such as the characterisation of a closing isolation valve with the proper friction coefficient need to be carefully chosen.

A valve model is described which implicitly determines the downstroke of the valve piston. Pre- and postcalculations were performed for the valve closure tests carried out during start-up at the BWR nuclear power plant at Krümmel, West Germany. The dynamic friction coefficient in a valve is introduced and its influence on the fluid dynamic forcing function in piping systems is examined.     

Wrapping carbon nanotubes by biopolymer chains: Role of nanointerfaces in detection of vapors in conductive polymer composite transducers

Chitosan (CS) and hydrophobic‐modified chitosan (HM‐CS) chains were wrapped onto multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and introduced to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrices as nanohybrid conductive polymer composites (CPCs) for detection of polar vapors. The effect of grafted alkyl groups on polarity of CS chains were studied by quantum mechanics (QM). The designed composites were applied as sensitive layers to clarify the response mechanism in CPCs gas sensors. It was realized that the wrapped biopolymers intensely influenced the sensitivity of the composites. Experiment results specified that the nature of biomacromolecules and their interactions with vapor molecules affects the resistance change in CPCs. The higher interaction of CS with polar vapor molecules caused more plasticization of polymer segments in the MWNTs connections. Such phenomenon enhanced the resistance change in the presence of analytes. Moreover, it was inferred that the semiconductor character of MWNTs has an important effect in the final signals. The more polar structure of CS in comparison with HM‐CS enhanced the adsorption of vapor molecules on the surface of MWNTs, and the electron donor analytes decreased the conductivity of p‐type MWNTs increasing the final responses. The presented results corroborate that the performance of CPCs gas sensors could be finely tuned through manipulation of the nanointerfaces. POLYM. COMPOS., 37:2803–2810, 2016. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

A Power Allocation Method for DMT-Based DSL Systems Using Geometric Programming

In this letter, we consider a power allocation problem for digital subscriber line (DSL) systems. The goal of this problem is to minimize the total transmit power under some constraints on minimum data-rate and maximum transmit power for each modem where we take into account various sources of interference. We convert our problem into an auxiliary geometric programming (GP) which gives the optimum solution for transmit powers in a neighborhood of a given feasible point. Then, we use an iterative scheme for obtaining the solution to our original problem by exploiting this auxiliary GP problem. Numerical examples show that the proposed method outperforms the existing schemes.