Mechanical property characterization of carbon nanofiber/epoxy nanocomposites reinforced by GMA-grafted UHMWPE fibers

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) dispersed epoxy resin was reinforced with unidirectional glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) grafted ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers. Tensile tests were performed on unfilled, and CNF filled epoxy to identify the effect of adding CNFs on the mechanical properties of epoxy. The highest improvement in strength was obtained with 1 wt% of CNF. Tensile and flexural properties improvements in three-component nanocomposites were confirmed by obtained results. The combined use of CNFs and GMA-grafted UHMWPE fibers leads to a significant synergy in the mechanical properties of nanocomposites. The mechanisms of such synergism were analyzed by fracture studies using scanning electron microscopy.     

The effect of substrate morphology on the diameter distribution of carbon nanotubes grown on silica and ceramic substrates

Large-scale well-aligned carbon nanotube film and carbon nanotube bundles have been fabricated on smooth silica and rough polycrystalline ceramic substrates by pyrolysis of ferrocene/melamine mixtures. The images of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) show that carbon nanotubes grown on the silica substrate have uniform outer diameters of about ∼ 25 nm and lengths of about 40 μm, while those on the ceramic substrate have outer diameters from 10 to 90 nm and lengths up to 100 μm. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) spectra show that nanotubes grown on the two different substrates are pure carbon tubes. The effects of substrate micro-morphologies on the diameters of carbon nanotubes have been discussed.     

Electrical sensing properties of silica aerogel thin films to humidity

Mesoporous silica aerogel thin films have been fabricated by dip coating of sol-gel derived silica colloid on gold electrode-patterned alumina substrates followed by supercritical drying. They were evaluated as the sensor elements at relative humidity 20-90% and temperature 15-35 °C under an electrical field of frequency 1-100 kHz. Film thickness and pore structure were two main parameters that determined the sensor performance. The film with a greater thickness showed a stronger dielectric characteristic when moisture abounded, and presented a smaller hysteresis loop and a higher recovery rate, due to the large size of pore throats. As the film thickness decreased, at low humidity the surface conductivity enhanced and the response rate increased. The silica aerogel based humidity sensor can be modeled as an equivalent electrical circuit composed of a resistor and a capacitor in parallel, and is driven by ionic conduction with charged proton carriers.     

Ultrafine polyacrylonitrile/silica composite fibers via electrospinning

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/silica composite nanofibers, in the diameter of 200-300 nm, were prepared by a one-step electrospinning method. The PAN/silica nanofibers were characterized by SEM, TEM, ATR-FTIR and DSC. SEM and TEM images show that beads are formed and silica nanoparticles start to aggregate when the silica content is higher than 2 wt.% in nanofibers. ATR-FTIR spectra and DSC results indicate that there may exist interactions between silica nanoparticles and PAN. The addition of silica nanoparticles also changes the thermal properties of PAN/silica nanofibers.     

Investigation on preparation of nano-size Gd0.2Ce0.8O2?δ material and its humidity sensing properties

The mixed-conductive ceramic oxide Gd_0.2Ce_0.8O_2−δ (GCO) particles with 40–50 nm were synthesized by using a combined citrate and EDTA complexation method. The material was characterized with powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A humidity sensor was fabricated by screening GCO onto a ceramic substrate with a pair of interdigitated electrodes. The sensor shows a linear relationship between logarithm impedance and relative humidity in the range of 33–98% when the measurement frequency range is 20 Hz–1 kHz. Typical response and recovery times of the sensor are 40 and 210 s, respectively, indicating that desorption rate of water molecule inside the GCO material is slower than the adsorption rate. The humidity sensing mechanism was discussed.     

Modeling of Moisture Diffusion in Permeable Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites Using Heterogeneous Hybrid Moisture Element Method

This study proposes a two-dimensional heterogeneous hybrid moisture element method (HHMEM) for modeling transient moisture diffusion in permeable fiber-reinforced polymer composites.
The HHMEM scheme is based on a heterogeneous hybrid moisture element(HHME), with properties determined through an equivalent hybrid moisture capacitance/conductance matrix. This matrix was calculated using the conventional finite element formulation in space discretization as well as the θ-method in time discretization with similar mass/stiffness properties and matrix condensing operations. A coupled HHME-FE scheme was developed and implemented in computer code MATLAB in order to analyze the transient moisture diffusion characteristics of composite materials containing multiple permeable fibers. The analysis commenced by comparing the performance of the proposed scheme with that of conventional FEM to model the moisture diffusion process. Both hexagonal and square fiber arrangements were studied. Having validated its performance, the scheme was then employed to investigate the relationship between the volume fraction of the permeable fibers in the resin composite and the rate of moisture diffusion. It was found that the moisture diffusion was significantly retarded as the volume fraction of the fibers increased. The HHMEM approach proposed in this study provides a straightforward and efficient means of modeling transient moisture diffusion in composite materials containing multiple permeable fibers. This is because only one HHME moisture characteristic matrix of fibers requires calculation for all HHMEs sharing the same characteristics. Furthermore, varying volume fractions can be modeled without modifying the original model simply by controlling the size of the inter-phase region within the HHME domain.     

Processing and thermal properties of Al/AlN composites in continuous solid–liquid co-existent state by spark plasma sintering

Aluminum nitride-particle-dispersed aluminum–matrix composites were fabricated in a unique fabrication method, where the powder mixture of AlN, pure Al and Al–5 mass%Si alloy was uniquely designed to form continuous solid–liquid co-existent state during spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. Composites fabricated in such a way can be well consolidated by heating during SPS processing in a temperature range between 798 K and 876 K for a heating duration of 1.56 ks. Microstructures of the composites thus fabricated were examined by scanning electron microscopy and no reaction product was detected at the interface between the AlN particle and the Al matrix. The relative packing density of the Al/AlN composite was almost 100% when volume fraction of AlN is between 40% and 60%. Thermal conductivity of the composite was higher than 180 W/mK at an AlN fraction range between 40 and 65 vol.%, approximately 90% of the theoretical thermal conductivity estimated by Maxwell–Eucken’s model. The coefficient of thermal expansion of the composite falls in the upper line of Kerner’s model, indicating strong bonding between the AlN particle and the Al matrix in the composite.     

Structural and mechanical properties of cellulose composites made of isolated cellulose nanofibers and poly(vinyl alcohol)

A composite of cellulose-nanofibers (Cel-F)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was made through a developed water-jet nano-isolation process called the Star Burst processing (SB). The structural and the mechanical properties of the pure Cel-F and the Cel-F/PVA composites were analyzed for comparison. The microstructural analyses revealed the step-by-step nano-isolation procedures of the SB processing, eventually constructing nanofibers with the minimum diameter of ∼23 nm. It was also found that the crystallinity of Cel-F was rapidly increased by 14% at the early stage of the SB process, subsequently becoming almost constant, irrespective of the number of the SB treatments. Additionally, Cel-F were homogenously dispersed in PVA matrix after 40 SB treatments. Young’s modulus of the resulting composite was increased by 48%. The results were in good agreement with the outcome of the short-fiber composite theory, indicating a highly potential use of the SB-processed cellulose nanofibers as new reinforcement materials.     

Growth of carbon nanofibers catalyzed by silica-coated copper nanoparticles

Silica-coated copper nanoparticles were synthesized by coating copper nanoparticles with a silica shell through microemulsion. The copper nanoparticles are 30–40 nm in diameter and the silica coating is 10 nm in thickness. After coating, copper nanoparticles were encapsulated in a silica matrix. These particles were used as a catalyst for the growth of carbon nanofibers in a tubular furnace. It is found that carbon nanofibers are mirror-symmetric growth and 100 nm in diameter. During growth, the copper nanoparticles moved out of the silica. As the experiment progressed, the interplanar spacing of copper (2 2 0) increased from 0.1288 nm to 0.1306 nm indicating that (2 2 0) plane exhibited high catalytic activity. The out-of-sync growth of different faces provides new evidence for the research of growth mode in carbon nanofibers.     

Fabrication and characterization of large-core Yb/Al-codoped fused silica waveguides using dry etching

A deep inductively coupled plasma etching process was developed as a part of a continuous effort to develop an all-silica on-chip platform for high-power optical devices. Combined F and Cl based etching chemistry was found most suitable since silica matrix and Al doping are generally etched using different chemistries. First large-core (∼20 × 20 μm) Yb/Al-codoped fused silica waveguides on pure silica substrate were successfully fabricated, featuring ∼1 dB/cm optical propagation loss.     

Accelerated resistive humidity sensing properties of silicon nanoporous pillar array

Silicon nanoporous pillar array (Si-NPA), with micro/nanometer composite structure, was prepared by hydrothermally etching single crystal silicon. Resistive humidity sensors were fabricated through evaporating coplanar interdigital aluminium electrodes on Si-NPA and the humidity sensing properties were tested. It was shown that with relative humidity changing from 11.3% to 94.6%, a resistance device response over one order of magnitude with response time less than 1 s was achieved at frequency of 1 kHz. This extraordinary property was mainly attributed to the unique morphology of Si-NPA, i.e., the regular pillar array provided an effective pathway for vapor transportation and the nanoporous structure of the pillars greatly enlarged the sensing areas.     

Synthesis of titanium silicalite-1 nanocrystals on silica nanofibers by steam-assisted dry gel conversion technique

Titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1) nanocrystals were coated on silica nanofibers by steam-assisted dry gel conversion technique. The preparation was carried out by impregnating the silica nanofibers in the diluted TS-1 synthesis solution, followed by the steam treatment at 130 °C for 6 days. The products were characterized by XRD, UV-vis spectroscopy, N₂ sorption, SEM, and TEM. The results showed that TS-1 nanocrystals were grown on the silica nanofibers with a particle size of 10-20 nm. The resulting composites, with a BET surface area of 428 m²/g and a mesopore size of 4.4 nm, exhibited higher catalytic activity than conventionally hydrothermal synthesized TS-1 powders in the benzene hydroxylation with hydrogen peroxide.     

Fabrication and characterization of electrospun mullite nanofibers

Continuous mullite (3Al₂O₃·2SiO₂) nanofibers were fabricated by a sol-gel electrospinning technique. The detailed crystallization development and micromorphological evolution of both the as-electrospun nanofibers and the sintered mullite nanofibers were investigated. Results indicated that the spinnability and micromorphological evolution of mullite nanofibers are largely dependent on the viscosity η of the mullite sol, which can be adjusted by polyvinylprrolidone (PVP) content. Mullite nanofibers with common cylindrical morphology and diameters ranging from 400 nm to 800 nm could be obtained easily and rapidly when PVP content is ranged from 5 wt.% to 8 wt.%. High purity polycrystalline mullite nanofibers with diameters of about 200 nm were obtained after sintering at 1200 °C for 2 h. All sintered nanofibers consisted of single crystalline grains with size of approximately 100 nm.     

Clustering of Yb in silica-based glasses synthesized by SPCVD

Light absorption and scattering are studied in silica-based slab lightguides with different contents of aluminum, ytterbium and phosphorous in the silica core. The slab lightguides used in the experiments were fabricated from the structures of doped silica deposited on the inner surface of a substrate silica tube via surface-plasma chemical vapor deposition (SPCVD). The synthesized glasses contained 0.004–0.4 at. % of Yb, as well as various contents of Al and P ranging from 0 to 1 at. %. Loss spectra of the slab lightguides are measured in the 300–1050 nm wavelength band, with the influence of the profusion of deposited glass on the loss spectra investigated by means of substrate tube external processing at a temperature of ∼1600 °C in the flame of a hydrogen-oxygen burner. We found that a combination of the temperature of the inner surface of the substrate tube during the deposition process and the subsequent profusion of the deposited structure essentially influence the distribution uniformity of ytterbium ions in the glass volume. If aluminum and phosphorous are present in the glass, such profusion can influence the formation of ytterbium clusters in opposite ways.     

Synthesis of β-silicon carbide nanofiber from an exfoliated graphite and amorphous silica

Silicon carbide (SiC) nanofibers were synthesized from exfoliated graphite containing silica particles at 1425 °C in a 25% H₂/Ar atmosphere. Two types of SiC nanofibers with different morphologies were formed depending on the silica content. A higher silica content led to straight nanofibers with a regular diameter size. The SiC nanofibers derived from the exfoliated graphite/40 wt% SiO₂ powder mixture contained a large number of stacking faults and grew along the [1 1 1] direction. A gas–gas reaction mechanism was proposed to explain the formation of SiC nanofibers.     

Free,restrained and drying shrinkage of cement mortar composites reinforced with vegetable fibres

Many investigations are realized to establish the basic mechanical properties of vegetable fibre reinforced composites (VFRC) but not their shrinkage and creep behaviour. Some works have been realized to establish the shrinkage of cement mortar matrices reinforced with cellulose fibres, but very few results has been published with regards to shrinkage of VFRC with short sisal and coconut fibres. In this paper a concise summary of several investigations is presented to establish the influence of sisal and coconut fibres on the free and restrained plastic shrinkage, early drying shrinkage cracking, crack self-healing and long-term drying shrinkage of mortar matrices. The free and restrained shrinkage were studied by subjecting the specimens to wind speed of 0.4–0.5 m/s at 40 °C temperature for up to 280 min. The self healing of cracks of the VFRC was studied by using the same specimens as for the study of restrained shrinkage which were kept further in a controlled environment with 100% relative humidity and temperature of 21 °C for up to 40 days. Drying shrinkage tests were carried out at room temperature with about 41% relative humidity for 320 days. The influence of curing method, mix proportions and partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) by ground granulated blast-furnace slag and silica fume on the drying shrinkage of VFRC was also investigated. Finally, based on the obtained results on drying shrinkage an equation using the recommendation of ACI model B3 was adjusted and compared well with the obtained experimental data.     

Ammonia gas detection based on polyaniline nanofibers coated on interdigitated array electrodes

Ammonia gas sensors were fabricated from polyaniline nanofibers, which were synthesized by a simple dilute polymerization method without external template. The films of polyaniline nanofibers were deposited on interdigitated array electrodes by drop casting method. The ammonia gas sensing mechanism arises from the deprotonation process of acid doped polyaniline. The sensors exhibited the sensitivity of 1.06 and response time of 10 s for 50 ppm of ammonia gas. Such high sensitivity and fast response are attributed to the large surface-to-volume ratio and interconnected network structures. These results suggest that polyaniline nanofibers are promising materials for ammonia gas sensors with high performance.     

The effect of heat treatment on the compressive strength of cement-slag mortars

Thirty-eight mix proportions of ordinary Portland cement-slag mortars (OSMs) were used to study the effects of temperature and relative humidity on strength. Three levels of slag (0%, 40%, and 50%) and different temperatures were used; the 50% level and heat curing of 60 °C for duration of 20 h were found to be the optimum. The optimum mortar’s strength at 3 and 7 days for the specimens cured in air were 55.0 and 62.0 MPa, respectively. The results show that for durations of 4–26 h, the strength of specimens cured in air is greater than those cured in water. This is a novelty with major advantages in arid areas. It was proved that more ettringite production at early ages resulted in higher early strengths. Comparison of curing regimes with different temperatures and the same relative humidity or different relative humidity and the same temperatures showed that higher strengths are attributed to higher temperatures and lower relative humidity, respectively.     

Preparation of alumina–silica–nickel nanocomposite by in situ reduction through sol–gel route

Ceramic based composites with dispersion of nano sized metal/metal carbide particles have generated wide technological interest for their improved mechanical properties — hardness, fracture strength as well as fracture toughness, superior electrical properties and magnetic properties. In the present investigation alumina–silica gels have been prepared along with nickel chloride and dextrose distributed in the nanometric pores of the gel. The gels are prepared with different molar proportions of alumina and silica containing 5 wt% of nickel chloride and 50 wt% excess dextrose. During heat treatment at a temperature of 900°C for half an hour in nitrogen atmosphere, nickel chloride is reduced to metallic nickel by in situ generated hydrogen in the silica–alumina matrix. X-ray analyses indicate that no nickel chloride reduction is possible upto 50 mol% silica in alumina–silica matrix. Beyond this range, higher the silica content, higher is the reduction of nickel chloride. The presence of metallic nickel has been substantiated further by SAD analysis. Particle size analysis based on X-ray diffraction as well as transmission electron micrograph shows the presence of nickel particles of size ∼20 nm distributed in the alumina–silica nanocomposite.     

Fabrication of refining mesoporous silica nanofibers via electrospinning

Refining mesoporous silica nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning method. A triblock copolymer (Pluronic, P123, H(C₂H₅O)₂₀(C₃H₇O)₇₀(C₂H₅O)OH) was used as the structure direction agent and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) was employed to prepare refining nanofibers. SEM images showed that the refining fibers had an average diameter about 200-300 nm with smooth surface. FT-IR spectrum and TGA curve proved that P123 and PVP were removed from the fibers after a thermal treatment. It was found that the obtained silica nanofibers had mesoporous structure. The pore structures were characterized by XRD and the N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherm.