A review of application of amine-terminated dendritic materials in textile engineering

Over the last decade, dendritic structures including hyperbranched polymers, dendrigrafts, dendrons, and dendrimers due to their distinct structural design such as highly branched structure and a large number of reactive end groups have received considerable attention. Among various kind of dendrimer, particularly amine-terminated dendritic materials like polyamidoamine (PAMAM), polypropylene imine (PPI), and polyethylene imine (PEI) have been introduced as the potential candidates in a wide range of areas, particularly in the field of textiles engineering. Hence, this review provides an introduction of amine-terminated dendritic polymers and new potential applications of them in textiles engineering such as improvement of dyeability, salt-free dyeability, antimicrobial activity, long-lasting fragrant fabric, anti-ultraviolet property, drug delivery through fabric, flame retardancy, and wastewater treatment. Regarding the complex synthesis of dendrimers which makes them expensive products, application of amine-terminated hyperbranched polymers provides affordable dendritic polymers to create novel features.     

Microstructural development during warm rolling of an IF steel

Wedge-shaped slab rolling was employed to investigate the microstructural evolution of an interstitial-free (IF) steel during warm working in the temperature range 500–800°C. Mean flow stress-strain curves calculated from load-time data of rolling tests reasonably correspond to work hardening and dynamic recovery behaviour. The development of substructures in the deformed material was investigated using optical and electron microscopy. A close correlation was observed between mechanical behaviour and microstructural development during deformation. Microbands in directions of ± 35° with respect to the rolling direction, independent of strain, temperature and initial grain orientations are the most noticeable features in the microstructural observations. The sequences of substructural changes from the appearance of early microbands at very low strains, their development with strain, to the formation of equiaxed subgrains at higher strains and temperatures were followed by TEM.     

Mapping urban land cover based on spatial-spectral classification of hyperspectral remote-sensing data

In this article, an innovative classification framework for hyperspectral image data, based on both spectral and spatial information, is proposed. The main objective of this method is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of high-resolution land-cover mapping in urban areas. The spatial information is obtained by an enhanced marker-based minimum spanning forest (MMSF) algorithm. A pixel-based support vector machine (SVM) algorithm is first used to classify the hyperspectral image data, then the enhanced MMSF algorithm is applied in order to increase the accuracy of less accurately classified land-cover types. The enhanced MMSF algorithm is used as a binary classifier. These two classes are the low-accuracy class and remaining classes. Finally, the SVM algorithm is trained for classes with acceptable accuracy. In the proposed approach, namely MSF-SVM, the markers are extracted from the classification maps obtained by both SVM and watershed segmentation algorithms, and are then used to build the MSF. Three benchmark hyperspectral data sets are used for the assessment: Berlin, Washington DC Mall, and Quebec City. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach compared with SVM and the original MMSF algorithms. It achieves approximately 5, 6, and 7% higher rates in kappa coefficients of agreement in comparison with the original MMSF algorithm for the Berlin, Washington DC Mall, and Quebec City data sets, respectively.     

An Investigation into the Effect of Alloying Elements on the Recrystallization Behavior of 70/30 Brass

An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model has been designed for predicting the effects of alloying elements (Fe, Si, Al, Mn) on the recrystallization behavior and microstructural changes of 70/30 brass. The model introduced here considers the content of alloying elements, temperature, and time of recrystallization as inputs while percent of recrystallization is presented as output. It is shown that the designed model is able to predict the effect of alloying elements well. It is also shown that all alloying elements strongly affect the recrytallization kinetics, and all slow down the recrystallization process. The effect of alloying elements on the activation energy for recrystallization has also been investigated. The results show that Si is the element which increases the activation energy.     

Study on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Nd:YAG pulsed laser beam weld of UNS-C17200 copper beryllium alloy

In this study, the microstructure of Nd:YAG pulsed laser welding of copper beryllium sheet has been investigated by tensile and hardness tests, optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The SEM images reveals three distinct solidified structures due to various thermal gradients occurred in the fusion zone. The XRD patterns show that the preferred solidification directions are like other FCC materials. Tensile strength of the weld metal is lower than that of the base metal since the CuBe phase precipitates during solidification. The effects of pulsed laser parameters on the weld pool dimensions were also studied. The results show that by applying constant pulse energy, focused beam diameter should be kept as low as possible to obtain the weld pool with the highest penetration and the least width. Moreover, the effect of passive layer on the reflectivity of surface by incident beam was investigated. It was found that weld pool increases when the laser energy is high due to multiple internal reflections.     

Solvent-Induced Formation of Novel Ni(II) Complexes Derived from Bis-Thiosemicarbazone Ligand: An Insight from Experimental and Theoretical Investigations

In this work, we report solvent-induced complexation properties of a new N₂S₂ tetradentate bis-thiosemicarbazone ligand (H₂L^I), prepared by the condensation of 4-phenylthiosemicarbazide with bis-aldehyde, namely 2,2’-(ethane-1,2-diylbis(oxy)dibenzaldehyde, towards nickel(II). Using ethanol as a reaction medium allowed the isolation of a discrete mononuclear homoleptic complex [NiL^I] (1), for which its crystal structure contains three independent molecules, namely 1-I, 1-II, and 1-III, in the asymmetric unit. The doubly deprotonated ligand L^I in the structure of 1 is coordinated in a cis-manner through the azomethine nitrogen atoms and the thiocarbonyl sulfur atoms. The coordination geometry around metal centers in all the three crystallographically independent molecules of 1 is best described as the seesaw structure. Interestingly, using methanol as a reaction medium in the same synthesis allowed for the isolation of a discrete mononuclear homoleptic complex [Ni(L^II)₂] (2), where L^II is a monodeprotonated ligand 2-(2-(2-(2-(dimethoxymethyl)phenoxy)ethoxy)benzylidene)-N-phenylhydrazine-1-carbothioamide (HL^II). The ligand L^II was formed in situ from the reaction of L^I with methanol upon coordination to the metal center under synthetic conditions. In the structure of 2, two ligands L^II are coordinated in a trans-manner through the azomethine nitrogen atom and the thiocarbonyl sulfur atom, also yielding a seesaw coordination geometry around the metal center. The charge and energy decomposition scheme ETS-NOCV allows for the conclusion that both structures are stabilized by a bunch of London dispersion-driven intermolecular interactions, including predominantly N–H∙∙∙S and N–H∙∙∙O hydrogen bonds in 1 and 2, respectively; they are further augmented by less typical C–H∙∙∙X (where X = S, N, O, π), CH∙∙∙HC, π∙∙∙π stacking and the most striking, attractive long-range intermolecular C–H∙∙∙Ni preagostic interactions. The latter are found to be determined by both stabilizing Coulomb forces and an exchange-correlation contribution as revealed by the IQA energy decomposition scheme. Interestingly, the analogous long-range C–H∙∙∙S interactions are characterized by a repulsive Coulomb contribution and the prevailing attractive exchange-correlation constituent. The electron density of the delocalized bonds (EDDB) method shows that the nickel(II) atom shares only ~0.8|e| due to the σ-conjugation with the adjacent in-plane atoms, demonstrating a very weak σ-metalloaromatic character.     

Toughening of dicyandiamide-cured DGEBA-based epoxy resins by CTBN liquid rubber

Toughening of a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA)-based epoxy resin with liquid carboxyl-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile (CTBN) copolymer has been investigated. For this purpose six blend samples were prepared by mixing DGEBA with different concentrations of CTBN from 0 to 25 phr with an increment of 5 phr. The samples were cured with dicyandiamide curing agent accelerated by Monuron. The reactions between oxirane groups of DGEBA and carboxyl groups of CTBN were followed by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Tensile, impact, fracture toughness and dynamic mechanical analysis of neat as well as the modified epoxies have been studied to observe the effect of CTBN modification. The tensile strength of the blend systems increased by 26 % when 5 phr CTBN was added, and it remained almost unchanged up to 15 phr of CTBN. The elongation-at-break and Izod notched impact strength increased significantly, whereas tensile modulus decreased gradually upon the addition of CTBN. The maximum toughness of the prepared samples was achieved at optimum concentration of 15 phr of CTBN, whereas the fracture toughness (K _IC) remained stable for all blend compositions of more than 10 phr of CTBN. The glass transition temperature (T _g) of the epoxy resin significantly increased (11.3 °C) upon the inclusion of 25 phr of CTBN. Fractured surfaces of tensile test samples have been studied by scanning electron microscopic analysis. This latter test showed a two-phase morphology where the rubber particles were distributed in the epoxy resin with a tendency towards co-continuous phase upon the inclusion of 25 phr of CTBN.