Dynamic mechanical behavior and nanostructure morphology of hyperbranched‐modified polypropylene blends

Polypropylene (PP) was modified utilizing two types of polyesteramide‐based hyperbranched polymers (amphiphilic PS and hydrophilic PH). A maleicanhydride‐modified PP (PM) was used as a reactive dispersing agent to enhance the modification by grafting the hyperbranched polymers onto the PP chains. Pure PP, two different non‐reactively modified samples, i.e. excluding PM, and two different reactively modified samples, i.e. including PM, were studied. Investigating the morphology of the samples was performed by scanning electron microscopy. To follow the effect of the modification on the dynamic mechanical properties, dynamic mechanical analysis experiments both in the melt (rheometric mechanical spectrometry) and in solid state (dynamic mechanical thermal analysis) were carried out. In the next step, the nanocrystalline structure of the samples was studied by small angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) in two different modes, i.e. static and recrystallization. Hundreds of SAXS patterns were analyzed automatically using procedures written in PV‐WAVE image‐processing software. The chord distribution function (CDF) was calculated and the long period (l_p) of the crystal lamellae was extracted from the CDFs. The rheometric mechanical spectrometry results show that both hyperbranched polymers decrease complex viscosity η^* and enhance liquid‐like behavior. This happens more significantly when PM is included. The dynamic mechanical thermal analysis results reveal that T_g decreases when PS and PH are added. In the reactively modified samples this reduction is compensated most probably because of the crosslinked structure formed through the grafting reaction between the hyperbranched polymers and PM. Such structure is confirmed by SAXS data and calculated CDFs in the recrystallization mode. Static SAXS data also show enhancement in the crosshatched morphology of the crystalline lamellae of PP for reactively modified samples compared with non‐reactively modified samples. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry     

A novel approach to the Poisson’s ratio of the yarn

Abstract

The Poisson’s ratio is a fundamental and inherent property of the materials in their reaction to loading. Determining the correct value of the Poisson’s ratio leads to more accurate predictions of the mechanical behavior of the material, especially in employing mechanical or numerical finite element modeling methods. In this study, seven different types of medium and coarse yarn were digitally filmed in seven sections from three various angles while tensile strength testing. Then, longitudinal and transverse strains and consequently, momentary deformation index and Poisson’s ratio of the yarns were calculated. Significance level of the mean Poisson’ ratio was also determined at different angles and sections using statistical comparison test. The results showed that the transverse strain has a convergent state at the end of the test and the start of the yarn breaking occurs at the convergence point. Additionally, in upper sections of yarn near to the movable jaw of the strength tester, the amount of the longitudinal strain increases which leads to reduce in momentary deformation index and Poisson’s ratio of the yarn. Moreover, a sectional mode to measure the Poisson's ratio was presented.     

Interrelationship of thermal and mechanical properties of poly(ethylene terephthalate)/poly(ethylene 2,6‐naphthalate)/graphene nanocomposites

In the present work, attempts were made to investigate the thermal and mechanical properties of melt‐processed poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)/poly(ethylene 2,6‐naphthalate) (PEN) blends and its nanocomposites containing graphene by using differential scanning calorimetry and tensile test experimenting. The results showed that crystallinity, which depends on a blend ratio, completely disappeared in a composition of 50/50. By introducing graphene to PET, even in low concentrations, the crystallinity of samples increased, while the nanocomposite of PEN indicated reverse behavior, and the crystallinity was reduced by adding graphene. In the case of PET‐rich (75/25) nanocomposite blends, by increasing the nano content in the blend, the crystallinity of the samples was enhanced. This behavior was attributed to the nucleating effect of graphene particles in the samples. From the results of mechanical experiments, it was found in PET‐rich blends that by increasing the PEN/PET ratio, the modulus of samples decreased, whereas in the case of PEN‐rich blends, a slight increment of modulus is seen as a result of the increment of the PEN/PET ratio. The two contradicting behaviors were attributed to the reduction of crystallinity of PET‐rich blends by enhancement of PEN/PET ratio and the rigid structure of PEN chains in PEN‐rich blends. Unlike the different modulus change of PET‐rich and PEN‐rich blends, the nanocomposites of these blends similarly indicated an increment of modulus and characteristics of rigid materials by increasing the nano content. Furthermore, the same behavior was detected in nanocomposites of each polymer (PET and PEN nanocomposites). The alteration from ductile to rigid conduction was related to the impedance in the role of graphene plates against the flexibility of polymer chains and high values of graphene modulus. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 23:210–218, 2017. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Ethanol production by Mucor indicus and Rhizopus oryzae from rice straw by separate hydrolysis and fermentation

Rice straw was successfully converted to ethanol by separate enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation by Mucor indicus, Rhizopus oryzae, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The hydrolysis temperature and pH of commercial cellulase and β-glucosidase enzymes were first investigated and their best performance obtained at 45 °C and pH 5.0. The pretreatment of the straw with dilute-acid hydrolysis resulted in 0.72 g g^?1 sugar yield during 48 h enzymatic hydrolysis, which was higher than steam-pretreated (0.60 g g^?1) and untreated straw (0.46 g g^?1). Furthermore, increasing the concentration of the dilute-acid pretreated straw from 20 to 50 and 100 g L^?1 resulted in 13% and 16% lower sugar yield, respectively. Anaerobic cultivation of the hydrolyzates with M. indicus resulted in 0.36–0.43 g g^?1 ethanol, 0.11–0.17 g g^?1 biomass, and 0.04–0.06 g g^?1 glycerol, which is comparable with the corresponding yields by S. cerevisiae (0.37–0.45 g g^?1 ethanol, 0.04–0.10 g g^?1 biomass and 0.05–0.07 glycerol). These two fungi produced no other major metabolite from the straw and completed the cultivation in less than 25 h. However, R. oryzae produced lactic acid as the major by-product with yield of 0.05–0.09 g g^?1. This fungus had ethanol, biomass and glycerol yields of 0.33–0.41, 0.06–0.12, and 0.03–0.04 g g^?1, respectively.     

N ‐acetylcysteine–PLGA nano‐conjugate: effects on cellular toxicity and uptake of gadopentate dimeglumine

Gadolinium as a contrast agent in MRI technique combined with DTPA causes contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) which can reduce by usage of antioxidants such as N‐acetyl cysteine by increasing the membrane''s permeability leads to lower cytotoxicity. In this study, N ‐acetyl cysteine‐PLGA Nano‐conjugate was synthesized according to stoichiometric rules of molar ratios andafter assessment by FTIR, NMR spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging was combined with Magnevist® (gadopentetate dimeglumine) and its effects on the renal cells were evaluated. MTT [3‐(4,5‐Dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide] and cellular uptake assays have indicated relatively significant toxicity of magnevist (P  < 0.05) on three cell lines including HEK293, MCF7 and L929 compared to other synthesized ligands that shown no toxicity. Moreover, systemic evaluation has shown no notable changes of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine in kidney of mice. In consequence, antioxidant effect was increased as well as the renal toxicity of the contrast agent reduced at the cell level. As a result, PLGA‐NAC nano‐conjugate can be a promising choice for decreasing the magnevist toxicity for treatment and prevention of CIN and will be able to open a new horizon to research on reduction of toxicity of contrast agents by using nanoparticles.Inspec keywords: blood, toxicology, nanofabrication, cellular biophysics, biomedical materials, nanoparticles, chromatography, cancer, biodegradable materials, biomedical MRI, kidney, pH, nanomedicine, patient treatment, diseases, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectraOther keywords: cellular toxicity, gadopentate dimeglumine, contrast agent, magnetic resonance imaging technique, diethylenetriamine pentaacetate, contrast‐induced nephropathy, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, stoichiometric rules, molar ratios, dimethyl sulphoxide solution, chromatography techniques, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy imaging, Magnevist®, gadopentetate dimeglumine, renal cells, MTT cytotoxicity, human embryonic kidney‐293, L929 cell lines, in vitro conditions, cellular uptake assays, Magnevist uptake, antioxidant effect, renal toxicity, cell level, PLGA nanocarrier, acetylcysteine nanoconjugate, Magnevist toxicity, N‐acetylcysteine–PLGA nano‐conjugate, N‐acetyl cysteine‐poly‐lactic‐co‐glycolic acid nanoconjugate     

Evaluation of the moment-rotation curve of I beam-to-CFT column connection with endplate,using mechanical modeling

Through this study, a method is presented to estimate moment-rotation (M-) curve of I beam-to-the concrete filled tube (CFT) connections. This method is based on the components method in which components are analyzed and modeled as different mechanical models. These components are considered as springs with specific mechanical properties of stiffness, strength, and rigid bars. Their force-displacement relationship is assumed bi-linear and 3-linear. The connection behavior is assumed through assembling the stiffness of different components. In this study, connection of I beam-to-CFT column with bolted endplate connection under monotonic loading, which has been tested in the laboratory, is evaluated. It must be mentioned that those bolts which penetrated into the column depth have been used in order to create continuity between flanges of the column. The suggested method has been compared with the experimental test and the advanced finite element model in terms of stiffness, strength, and rotational capacity; moreover, its operation was satisfactory.     

Double-command fuzzy control of a nonlinear CSTR

In this research, double-command control of a nonlinear chemical system is addressed. The system is a stirred tank reactor; two flows of liquid with different concentrations enter the system through two valves and another flow exits the tank with a concentration between the two input concentrations. Fuzzy logic was employed to design a model-free double-command controller for this system in the simulation environment. In order to avoid output chattering and frequent change of control command (leading to frequent closing-opening of control valves, in practice) a damper rule is added to the fuzzy control system. A feedforward (steady state) control law is also derived from the nonlinear mathematical model of the system to be added to feedback (fuzzy) controller generating transient control command. The hybrid control system leads to a very smooth change of control input, which suits real applications. The proposed control system offers much lower error integral, control command change and processing time in comparison with neuro-predictive controllers.     

A novel online affine model identification of multivariable processes using adaptive neuro-fuzzy networks

This paper presents a novel systematic identification methodology for online affine modeling of multivariable processes using adaptive neuro-fuzzy networks. The proposed approach introduces an integrated procedure to simultaneously estimate a number of adaptive neuro-fuzzy networks with simple and compact dynamic structures to realize a multivariable affine model identification in real-time. A new fuzzy rule significance concept, based on a generic time-weighted rule activation record (WRAR), together with a measure of time-weighted root mean square (WRMS) error are incorporated to maintain efficient structural and parametric mechanisms for proper adaptation of the resulting neuro-fuzzy networks. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm is developed to adaptively adjust the neuro-fuzzy free parameters corresponding to the nearest created fuzzy rules. Extensive simulation test studies will be conducted to explore the capabilities of the proposed identification approach to adaptively develop online multivariable affine dynamic models for a highly nonlinear and time-varying continues stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and a highly nonlinear binary distillation column as two challenging benchmark problems.     

H2-selective mixed matrix membranes modeling using ANFIS,PSO-ANFIS,GA-ANFIS

The novel contribution of the current study is to employ adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for evaluation of H₂-selective mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) performance in various operational conditions. Initially, MMMs were prepared by incorporating zeolite 4A nanoparticles into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and applied in gas permeation measurement. The gas permeability of CH₄, CO₂, C₃H₈ and H₂ was used for ANFIS modeling. In this manner, the H₂/gas selectivity as the output of the model was modeled to the variations of feed pressure, nanofiller contents and the kind of gas, which were defined as input (design) variables. The proposed method is based on the improvement of ANFIS with genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The PSO and GA were applied to improve the ANFIS performance. To determine the efficiency of PSO-ANFIS, GA-ANFIS and ANFIS models, a statistical analysis was performed. The results revealed that the PSO-ANFIS model yields better prediction in comparison to two other methods so that root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R²) were obtained as 0.0135 and 0.9938, respectively. The RMSE and R² values for GA-ANFIS were 0.0320 and 0.9653, respectively, and for ANFIS model were 0.0256 and 0.9787, respectively.     

Kinetic Model for Invertase‐Induced Sucrose Hydrolysis: Initial Time Lag

The kinetics of sucrose hydrolysis by invertase was studied in order to find a comprehensive model for the reaction pathway and mechanism. First, three common models of Michaelis‐Menten (MM), substrate inhibition (S²), and substrate clusters' inhibition (S³(I)) were investigated. The third model was found to better predict the initial sucrose concentration. Then, the S³(I) model was modified to cover the remaining pathway (S³(II)). Finally, a new comprehensive model (S³(III)) was evaluated, which in addition to what is considered in the two previously mentioned models (S³(I) and S³(II)) also involved the initial time lag. The model predictions showed an excellent agreement with the experimental data. The mean absolute error for the MM model is significantly reduced for the S³(III) model.