Optimization of the spark plasma sintering processing parameters affecting the properties of polyimide

The present study deals with the optimization of polyimide (PI) mechanical properties, obtained by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), by using a method combining Design of Experiments (DOE) with physical, structural, and mechanical characterizations. The effects of SPS parameters such as temperature, pressure, dwell time, and cooling rate on the density, mechanical properties, and structure of PI were investigated. The experimental results revealed that the mechanical properties of the material were optimized by raising the sintering temperature up to 350°C. The optimized SPS processing parameters were a temperature of 350°C, a pressure of 40 MPa, and a dwell time of 5 min. Under these conditions, a relative density of 99.6% was reached within only a few minutes. The corresponding mechanical properties consisted of Young's modulus of 3.43 GPa, a Shore D hardness of 87.3, and a compressive strength of 738 MPa for a maximum compressive strain of 61.8%. Moreover, when working at 320°C and at 100 MPa, an increase in the dwell time was necessary to enhance the properties. Contrary to the other parameters, the cooling rate appeared to be a non‐significant parameter. Finally, correlations between the PI structure and the mechanical properties were made to demonstrate the densification mechanisms. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41542.     

Long-Term Measures of Dyslipidemia,Inflammation, and Oxidative Stress in Rats Fed a High-Fat/High-Fructose Diet

Inflammation and oxidative stress are thought to be involved in, or associated with, the development of obesity, dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis, and insulin resistance. This work was designed to determine the evolution of inflammation and oxidative stress during onset and progression of hepatic steatosis and glucose intolerance. Seventy-five male Wistar rats were divided to control and high-fat high-fructose (HFHFr) groups. A subgroup of each group was sacrificed at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks. HFHFr-fed rats exhibited overweight, glucose intolerance, and hepatic steatosis with increased contents of hepatic diacylglycerols and ceramides. The HFHFr diet increased hepatic interleukin 6 (IL-6) protein and adipose tissue CCL5 gene expression and hepatic nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase activity but not mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The HFHFr diet decreased plasma and liver levels of isoprostanoid metabolites as well as plasma thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) levels. Hepatic glutathione content was decreased with a moderate decrease in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) with the HFHFr diet. Overall, HFHFr diet led to hepatic lipid accumulation and glucose intolerance, which were accompanied by only moderate inflammation and oxidative stress. Most of these changes occurred at the same time and as early as 8 or 12 weeks of diet treatment. This implies that oxidative stress may be the result, not the cause, of these metabolic alterations, and suggests that marked hepatic oxidative stress should probably occur at the end of the steatotic stage to result in frank insulin resistance and steatohepatitis. These findings need to be further evaluated in other animal species as well as in human studies.     

Effects of pressure on poly(ether-ether-ketone) (PEEK) sintering mechanisms

This study deals with the understanding of the sintering mechanisms that occur during consolidation of an ultra-high-performance polymer: poly(ether-ether-ketone). In particular, we investigated the effects of uniaxial pressure during spark plasma sintering (SPS) processing. Glass-transition temperature (T_g) measurements under loading, stress–strain curves and scanning electron microscopy analysis allowed us to determine the role of pressure intensity and temperature of application on macromolecular chain mobility in both the bulk and the surface of the particles. First, a loss of chain mobility in the bulk of the particles was observed under high pressure. Second, it was shown that high pressure applied at low temperature leads to friction effects between the particles which enhances chain mobility in the particle shell through a local melting phenomenon. These experimental conditions favor the healing of particles and high cohesion was then observed in the resulting sintered samples. The level of friction is enhanced when pressure is applied at a low temperature since the powders are still in a glassy state. Finally, the achievement of cohesive grain boundaries was found to be related to the location and conformation of chain ends. Good healing between particles can only occur if a sufficient number of chain ends are available at the surface of the particle shell. We showed that the native powder state plays a significant role. The direct use of as-received powder leads to final material exhibiting good cohesion whereas pretreatments of the native powder are highly detrimental. It should be noted that this processing does not affect the high initial degree of crystallinity because no bulk melting is observed during consolidation by sintering. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47645.     

Gas environment effect on cavitation damage in stretched polyvinylidene fluoride

The influence of gas sorption on damage nucleation of a semicrystalline polymer during coupled diffuso‐mechanical monotonic loading in tension was investigated for the first time. Alpha‐poly(vinylidene fluoride) was mechanically strained under the presence of two chemically different gases, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, at a temperature of 30°C and a pressure up to 120 bar. The cavitation damage at the microstructure scale after gas decompression was assessed from a careful SEM and TEM micrographs analysis. Compared with SEM, TEM allowed quantifying the smallest cavities (ten‐nanometer size). If decompression in hydrogen appeared to have only a slight effect on cavitation however, carbon dioxide showed a detrimental effect on damage nucleation with the exhibition of a significant population of small cavities. On the other hand, tension under gas pressure is more sensitive to hydrogen than to carbon dioxide. Once interaction with gaseous carbon dioxide takes place the plasticizing effect is in competition with damage by cavitation. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:2139–2146, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Temperature stability of a pure metakaolin based K-geopolymer: Part 2. Variations in the mesoporous network and its rehydration stability

The thermal behavior of a model MK-based K-geopolymer was investigated between room temperature and 1400°C in order to evaluate its potentiality for high-temperature applications. The purpose of our study was to monitor the behavior of a geopolymer during a temperature rise in order to better understand its variations with respect to temperature. The works from the present paper focus only changes in the porous network; it follows a first part devoted to variations in the mineral matrix. The results obtained here show that the geopolymer material preserves its porous integrity up to 800°C, while maintaining the reversibility of water exchanges corresponding to about 25 weight percent. Together with the results of part 1, the findings of this study allow us to affirm that geopolymer materials are only very little affected by temperatures up to 800°C, or even 900°C (keeping its mesoporous amorphous structure).     

An Expedient Synthesis of Flexible Nucleosides through Enzymatic Glycosylation of Proximal and Distal Fleximer Bases

The structurally unique “fleximer” nucleosides were originally designed to investigate how flexibility in a nucleobase could potentially affect receptor–ligand recognition and function. Recently they have been shown to have low-to-sub-micromolar levels of activity against a number of viruses, including coronaviruses, filoviruses, and flaviviruses. However, the synthesis of distal fleximers in particular has thus far been quite tedious and low yielding. As a potential solution to this issue, a series of proximal fleximer bases (flex-bases) has been successfully coupled to both ribose and 2′-deoxyribose sugars by using the N-deoxyribosyltransferase II of Lactobacillus leichmannii (LlNDT) and Escherichia coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP). To explore the range of this facile approach, transglycosylation experiments on a thieno-expanded tricyclic heterocyclic base, as well as several distal and proximal flex-bases were performed to determine whether the corresponding fleximer nucleosides could be obtained in this fashion, thus potentially significantly shortening the route to these biologically significant compounds. The results of those studies are reported herein.     

Phase structure and mechanical properties of PP/EPR/CaCO3 nanocomposites: Effect of particle's size and treatment

Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) reinforced polypropylene/ethylene propylene rubber (PP/EPR) copolymer composites for automotive use were developed by means of extrusion and injection molding process. Three kinds of CaCO₃ (stearic acid treated and untreated) nanoparticles and microparticles were used as fillers. The influence of stearic acid, particle size, and filler content on the state distribution and morphology were investigated by SEM and rheological measurements. Two different morphologies were observed: EPR and CaCO₃ dispersed in the PP matrix and a core shell structure, depending on the interactions between EPR and CaCO₃. Toughening mechanisms and mechanical properties of the different systems were investigated. Significant improvement in tensile modulus is observed in all composites, depending on filler content. Elongation and notched impact strength were drastically decreased, especially for composites with nano CaCO₃. Better impact properties were obtained with low content of treated particles, showing the importance of filler treatment. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:2859–2868, 2015. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Identification of design motifs with pattern matching algorithms

Design patterns are important in software maintenance because they help in understanding and re-engineering systems. They propose design motifs, solutions to recurring design problems. The identification of occurrences of design motifs in large systems consists of identifying classes whose structure and organization match exactly or approximately the structure and organization of classes as suggested by the motif. We adapt two classical approximate string matching algorithms based on automata simulation and bit-vector processing to efficiently identify exact and approximate occurrences of motifs. We then carry out two case studies to show the performance, precision, and recall of our algorithms. In the first case study, we assess the performance of our algorithms on seven medium-to-large systems. In the second case study, we compare our approach with three existing approaches (an explanation-based constraint approach, a metric-enhanced explanation-based constraint approach, and a similarity scoring approach) by applying the algorithms on three small-to-medium size systems, JHotDraw, Juzzle, and QuickUML. Our studies show that approximate string matching based on bit-vector processing provides efficient algorithms to identify design motifs.     

Casein micelles as a vehicle for iron fortification of foods

Casein micelles were loaded with iron to create a dispersible delivery format for insoluble iron by exposing milk at chilled temperatures to a high concentration of soluble iron (up to 20 mmol kg⁻¹ ferrous and ferric chloride). The loading was maximised by applying a pH-cycle to the fortified milk by means of carbonation. Upon acidification of fortified milk, no release of iron was observed, except at the highest concentration. Changes in the buffering capacity as a function of pH confirmed the formation of colloidal iron phosphates. Overall, most properties of the micelles did not change: hydration, protein distribution between soluble and colloidal phase remained constant, but zeta potential decreased slightly and curd formation upon renneting became much slower. The renneting behaviour could be improved by carbonation or storage at 30 °C for a day. Iron-fortified milk samples were stable under heating, except when fortification was achieved by means of 20 mmol kg⁻¹ ferric chloride. The most obvious difference of iron-fortified milk is its appearance: samples fortified with ferrous chloride were darker than control, whereas samples fortified with ferric chloride were more red/yellow.