Open‐cell foams of polyethylene terephthalate/bisphenol a polycarbonate blend

Open microcellular foams of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/polycarbonate (PC) blends were prepared by controlling their foaming behavior at the interface between these two polymers. Interface modification was a crucial factor in governing the foaming behavior and cell morphology of the blend foams: annealing at 280°C, i.e., conducting the transesterification reaction, generates a PET‐b‐PC copolymer, which lowers the interfacial tension, increases the affinity between PET and PC, and decreases the crystallinity of the PET domains. When CO₂ foaming was performed at the interface modified with the copolymer, an interesting fibril‐like structure was formed. The cell density of the PET/PC blend then increased, and its cell size reduced to the microscale while maintaining a high open‐cell ratio. The effect of heat annealing (transesterification reaction) on CO₂‐foaming was studied to reveal the relationship among the interface affinity, crystallinity, and degree of fibrillation. The optimal heat‐annealing procedure generated a fibril‐like structure in the PET/PC blend foams with a high cell density (7 × 10¹¹ cm^?3), small cell size (less than 2 μm), and 100% open‐cell ratio. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:375–385, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

A comparative study on thermomechanical and rheological characteristics of graphite/polypropylene nanocomposites: Highlighting the role of mixing

The thermomechanical and rheological properties of various graphite/long‐chain branched polypropylene (PP) nanocomposites prepared by different mixing methods have been addressed in the current work. To improve the degree of dispersion of graphite throughout the PP domains, solid‐state milling was carried out and followed by low‐temperature melt processing in the range of melting point and the crystallization temperature of PP. As a result, the well‐dispersed graphite/PP nanocomposites revealed a higher degree of plastic deformation and energy to break in the tensile test; moreover, interestingly, nanocomposites based on branched PP showed a lower zero shear viscosity and lower isothermal crystallization rate. It was speculated that the unexpected decrease in zero shear viscosity arose from the disentanglement of the long‐chain branches in particular, when an exfoliated morphology existed within the PP matrix. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 21:12–17, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Structural,mechanical and thermal studies of double‐molded isotactic polypropylene nanocomposites with multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Nanocomposites of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with various contents of MWCNTs were fabricated by double molding techniques. X‐ray diffraction measurements reveal a development of α‐crystal with lamellar stacks having a long period of 150 Å in the neat iPP that increases to 165 Å in 2 wt % MWCNTs‐loaded composites, indicating that MWCNTs enhance crystallization of iPP as a nucleating factor. Mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, flexural strength, Young's modulus, tangent modulus, and microhardness are found to increase with increasing MWCNTs content. Thermal analyses represent an increase of crystallization and melting temperatures and a decrease of thermal stability of the composites with increasing MWCNTs. Changes in structural, mechanical, and thermal properties of the composites due to the addition of MWCNTs are elaborately discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Modeling of extraction behavior of docosahexaenoic acid ethyl ester by utilizing slug flow prepared by microreactor

The liquid–liquid extraction dynamics of an ethyl ester of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA‐Et) with silver ion was investigated. The kinetic model was derived according to the following stepwise processes: Diffusion of DHA‐Et across the organic film, complex‐formation between DHA‐Et and silver ion at the interface, and diffusion of extracted complex across the aqueous film. The kinetic parameters for the complex‐formation reaction were determined from the investigation with the stirred transfer cell. With the proposed model and determined parameters, we predicted the uptakes of DHA‐Et for the extraction system utilizing a slug flow prepared by a microchip. The calculated uptakes showed good correlation to the experimental data. The theoretical investigation suggested that the fast equilibration realized for the slug flow extraction system was due to the large specific interfacial area of the slug caused by the presence of wall film and the thin liquid film caused by the internal circulation. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

Preparation of mesoporous silica replica using ordered mesoporous carbon by vapor phase transport of silica source

A new vapor phase transport (VPT) technique to prepare an inverse silica replica of an ordered mesoporous carbon was developed. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was infiltrated in mesoporous carbon CMK-3 as the hard template at 180 °C for 48 h under an autogenous pressure in an autoclave in the presence of water. The samples obtained by removal of CMK-3 retained structural regularity of CMK-3 with little shrinkage of framework, which were characterized by SAXRD, N₂ adsorption, TG-DTA, and SEM. Influence of preparation temperature on the loading amount of silica was investigated. The multi-step replication process was monitored by characterizing the replicated materials as well as intermediate composites.     

Improvement of the surface quality of foam injection molded products from a material property perspective

Microcellular injection molding is an attractive method. However, their surface imperfections have been a major problem hindering wide industrial applications. Several methods have been proposed to improve the surface appearance of foams. In this study, we proposed a method to improve the surface appearance of polypropylene (PP) foams from the material property perspective, especially with regard to crystallization and viscosity. The basic idea of the surface improvement is to reduce the size of bubbles generated at the flow front, delay the solidification behavior of the polymer at the mold interface, squeeze the bubbles existing at the mold–polymer interface, and redissolve the bubbles into the polymer by holding pressure. Blending a low-modulus PP delays the crystallization of the polymers at the skin layer and solidification, taking enough time to squeeze the bubbles smaller. A sorbitol-based gelling agent, bis-O-([4 methylphenyl]methylene)-D-Glucitol, was used to increase the viscosity at a low strain rate to reduce the size of the bubbles generated at the flow front during the filling stage. The foam injection molding experiments demonstrated that the proposed method effectively improved the surface appearance of the foams. In particular, the surface appearance of the foams became almost equivalent to that of solid samples using low-modulus PP.     

Structural Investigation of 95(0.6Li2S0.4SiS2)5Li4SiO4 Oxysulfide Glass by Using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

S2 p and O1 s photoelectron spectra were obtained for the 95(0.6Li₂S0.4SiS₂)5Li₄SiO₄ oxysulfide glass prepared by twin-roller quenching. A four-peak deconvolution technique was used to separate the S2 p peak of the glass into the components of bridging and nonbridging sulfur atoms. As a result of the deconvolution of the S2 p peak, we found that ∼92% of the sulfur atoms were present as nonbridging atoms. The O1 s peak of the glass was separated into two components: bridging and nonbridging oxygen atoms. This separation of the O1 s peak indicated that ∼85% of the oxygen atoms were present as bridging oxygen atoms.     

Absorption and Fluorescence Spectra of Nitrobenzanthrones

To identify nitrobenzanthrones (NBAs) such as 3-nitro-7 H -benz[ de ]anthracene-7-one (3-NBA) on the basis of their electronic spectral data, we have synthesized 1-, 2-, 3-, 9-, and 10-NBAs and measured their absorption and emission spectra. The first strong absorption band of the NBAs appeared in the region 350-440 nm; the band of 10-NBA was red-shifted by about 20 nm. The molar absorptivities of 3- and 9-NBA were about two times as large as those of the others. The fluorescence spectra of the NBAs varied more largely with the position of the nitro group compared to the absorption spectra. The quantum yields of fluorescence were very small, ranging from ～10 m 2 for 2- and 10-NBA to ～10 m 4 for 1- and 3-NBA. 3-NBA exhibited a characteristic spectrum with two broad bands at 450 and 530 nm. On excitation causing an n ~ * transition in the NBAs, their fluorescence intensities increased by a factor of 10. Phosphorescence was observed at 77 K for all compounds though that of 1-NBA was very weak. These results give the promise of characterizing individual isomers of NBAs on the basis of their spectroscopic data.