The study of elongation and shear rates in spinning process and its effect on gas separation performance of Poly(ether sulfone) (PES) hollow fiber membranes

The influence of elongation and shear rates induced by the geometry of spinnerets on gas performance of PES hollow fiber membranes has been studied. Different elongation and shear rates were introduced in various spinnerets with flow angles of 60°, 75° and 90° by changing the flow rate of dope solution. The PES hollow fiber membranes were fabricated under the wet-spun condition without extra drawing force and their gas performances were tested by using O₂ and N₂. The flow profiles of dope solution and the elongation and shear rates at the outermost point of the outlet of spinnerets were simulated by the computational fluid dynamics model. A hypothetic mechanism is assumed to explain the effects of elongation and shear rates on the changes of conformation of polymer chain. While trying to correlate the elongation and shear rates with the gas performance of hollow fibers, we have come to some preliminary conclusions that the elongation rate has more contribution portion in permselectivity than in permeance and the shear rate has more contribution portion in permeance than in permselectivity.     

Properties and mechanism on flexural fatigue of polypropylene fiber reinforced concrete containing slag

Properties and mechanism were investigated on flexural fatigue of concrete containing polypropylene fibers and ground granulated blast furnace slag(GGBFS).Four polypropylene fibers’volume fractions and five slag proportions were considered.An experiment was conducted to obtain the fatigue lives at three stress levels in 20 Hz frequency and at a constant stress level of 0.59 in four frequency respectively.Mechanism and evaluation were investigated based on the experimental data.Fatigue life span models were established.The results show that the addition of polypropylene fibers improves the flexural fatigue cumulative strength and fatigue life span.It is proposed that the slag particles and hydrated products improve Interfacial Transition Zone(ITZ)structure and benefit flexural fatigue performance.A composite reinforce effect is found with the incorporation of slag and polypropylene fibers.The optimum mixture contents 55%slag with 0.6%polypropylene fiber for the cumulative fatigue stress.Fatigue properties are decreased as the stress level increasing,the higher frequency reduces the fatigue strength more than lower frequency at a constant stress level.     

Unidirectional hemp and flax EP‐ and PP‐composites: Influence of defined fiber treatments

In some technical areas, mainly in the automotive industry, glass fiber reinforced polymers are intended to be replaced by natural fiber reinforced polymer systems. Therefore, higher requirements will be imposed to the physical fiber properties, fiber‐matrix adhesion, and the quality assurance. To improve the properties of epoxy resins (EP) and polypropylene (PP) composites, flax and hemp fibers were modified by mercerization and MAH‐PP coupling agent was used for preparing the PP composites. The effects of different mercerization parameters such as concentration of alkali (NaOH), temperature, and duration time along with tensile stress applied to the fibers on the structure and properties of hemp fibers were studied and judged via the cellulose I–II lattice conversion. It was observed that the mechanical properties of the fibers can be controlled in a broad range by using appropriate mercerization parameters. Unidirectional EP composites were manufactured by the filament winding technique; at the PP matrix material, a combination with a film‐stacking technique was used. The influence of mercerization parameters on the properties of EP composites was studied with hemp yarn as an example. Different macromechanical effects are shown at hemp‐ and flax‐PP model composites with mercerized, MAH‐PP‐treated, or MAH‐PP‐treated mercerized yarns. The composites' properties were verified by tensile and flexural tests. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 2150–2156, 2004     

Oxidative stabilization of PAN/SWNT composite fiber

PAN/SWNT composite fibers have been spun with 0, 5, and 10 wt% single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Tensile fracture surfaces of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers exhibited extensive fibrillation, while for PAN/SWNT composite fibers, tendency to fibrillate decreased with increasing SWNT content. The reinforcing effect of SWNTs on the oxidized polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber has been studied. At 10 wt% SWNTs, breaking strength, modulus, and strain to failure of the oxidized composite fiber increased by 100%, 160%, and 115%, respectively. Tensile fracture surfaces of thermally stabilized PAN and the PAN/SWNT fibers exhibited brittle behavior and well distributed SWNT ropes covered with the oxidized matrix can be observed in the tensile fracture surfaces of the fibers. No de-bonding has been observed between unoxidized or the oxidized PAN matrix and the nanotube ropes. Higher strain to failure of the oxidized composite fiber as compared to that of the oxidized control PAN fiber also suggests good adhesion/interaction between SWNT and the oxidized matrix. Thermal stresses generated on the composite fiber during the oxidation process were lower than those for the control fiber. The potential of PAN/SWNT composite fiber as the precursor material for the carbon fiber has been discussed.     

High‐temperature DSC study of polyacrylonitrile precursors during their conversion to carbon fibers

The evolution of structure, the changes of properties during the preoxidation, precarbonization, and carbonization of different polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursors were firstly studied in detail by means of using high‐temperature differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to characterize with continuous heating from 25 to 1400°C. It was essential to study the thermal behavior of PAN precursors so that proper temperature was determined. Three precursors with different composition, P1: acrylonitrile/itaconic acid (AN/IA) = 98/2 (wt/wt); P2: acrylonitrile/acrylamide (AN/AM) = 98/2 (wt/wt); P3: acrylonitrile/ammonium salt of itaconic acid (AN/AIA) = 98/2 (wt/wt) were, respectively, selected in this study. Comparative results of the DSC curves showed that the heating history influenced greatly the heat quantities released and exothermic position at low temperature of DSC curve, but influenced slightly at higher temperature. Aromatic index, carbon yield (W_c) and weight loss (η) can be calculated. After adjusting the temperature in preoxidation and precarbonization and carbonization technology depending on high‐temperature DSC, the high performance carbon fibers were obtained that tensile strength is 3.56–4.16 GPa, modulus is 235–243 GPa. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007     

Effects of spinning and drawing conditions on the crimp contraction of side‐by‐side poly(trimethylene terephthalate) bicomponent fibers

The crimp properties in the melt‐spinning and drawing processes of side‐by‐side bicomponent fibers with poly(trimethylene terephthalate)s (PTTs) of different viscosities were studied. Two PTTs of different intrinsic viscosities (1.02 and 0.92) were selected to make latent crimp yarn. The spinning and drawing conditions were changed to investigate the relation between the process conditions and crimp contraction. An orthogonal array was used to rule out the weak variables. The draw ratio, heat‐set temperature, and portion of high‐viscosity PTT were selected as variables having an effect on the crimp contraction. An analysis of the effects of the spinning and drawing conditions on the crimp contraction showed that the draw ratio was the most critical variable. Increasing the draw ratio caused a difference in the shrinkage between the two parts of PTT and caused the self‐crimping of the bicomponent fibers. Although changing the heat‐set temperature and the portion of high‐viscosity PTT did not produce a dimensional change, the crimp contraction varied with those variables. As the heat‐set temperature and the high‐viscosity portion increased, the crimp contraction increased. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 1322–1327, 2006     

Melt spinning and drawing of 2‐methyl‐1,3‐propanediol‐substituted poly(ethylene terephthalate)

The structure and properties of fibers prepared from copolymers of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) in which 2‐methyl‐1,3‐propanediol (MPDiol® Glycol is a registered trademark of Lyondell Chemical Company) at 4, 7, 10, and 25 mol% was substituted for ethylene glycol were studied and compared with those of PET homopolymer. Filaments were melt spun over a range of spinning conditions, and some filaments that were spun at relatively low spinning speeds were subjected to hot drawing. The filaments were characterized by measurements of birefringence, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) crystallinity, melting point, glass transition temperature, wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction patterns, boiling water shrinkage, tenacity, and elongation to break. Filaments containing 25 mol% MPDiol did not crystallize in the spinline at any spinning speed investigated, whereas the other resins did crystallize in the spinline at high spinning speeds. However, compared with PET homopolymer, increasing substitution of MPDiol reduced the rate at which the crystallinity of the melt spun filaments increased with spinning speed and reduced the ultimate crystallinity that could be achieved by high‐speed spinning. The rate of development of molecular orientation, as measured by birefringence, also decreased somewhat with increasing MPDiol content. Shrinkage in boiling water decreased at high spinning speeds as the amount of crystallinity increased; however, the shrinkage decreased more slowly with increase in spinning speed as MPDiol content increased. Tenacity also decreased slightly at any given spinning speed as MPDiol content increased, but there was no significant effect on elongation to break. The addition of MPDiol in amounts up to 7 mol% increased the maximum take‐up velocity that could be achieved at a given mass throughput. This result indicates that the use of higher spinning speeds could potentially increase the productivity of melt spun yarns. Copolymer filaments spun at low speeds were readily drawn to produce highly oriented fibers with slightly less birefringence, crystallinity, and tenacity than similarly processed PET homopolymer. Preliminary dyeing experiments showed that the incorporation of MPDiol improved the dyeability of the filaments. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 2598–2606, 2003     

Proteomics in farm animals models of human diseases

The need to provide in vivo complex environments to understand human diseases strongly relies on the use of animal models, which traditionally include small rodents and rabbits. It is becoming increasingly evident that the few species utilised to date cannot be regarded as universal. There is a great need for new animal species that are naturally endowed with specific features relevant to human diseases. Farm animals, including pigs, cows, sheep and horses, represent a valid alternative to commonly utilised rodent models. There is an ample scope for the application of proteomic techniques in farm animals, and the establishment of several proteomic maps of plasma and tissue has clearly demonstrated that farm animals provide a disease environment that closely resembles that of human diseases. The present review offers a snapshot of how proteomic techniques have been applied to farm animals to improve their use as biomedical models. Focus will be on specific topics of biomedical research in which farm animal models have been characterised through the application of proteomic techniques.     

Influence of Temperature on the Properties of Polycarbosilane

A polycarbosilane precursor of SiC fiber was synthesized at high temperature under high pressure from liquid polysilane (LPS), which was obtained by thermal decomposition of poly(dimethylsilane). The effect of reaction temperature on the Si–H bond content, degree of linearity, Si–Si bond content, molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, elemental composition, softening point, and yield of the polycarbosilane (PCS) was studied spectroscopically (FTIR, UV, ¹H-NMR, and ²⁹Si-NMR) and by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The results showed that the molecular weight, yield and softening point of the PCS increased, the molecular weight distribution broadened, and the Si–Si bond content and degree of linearity decreased when the reaction temperature increased. The Si–H bond content increased when the thermolysis reaction temperature was less than 450°C and decreased when the temperature was over 460°C. Increasing of the reaction temperature affected the composition with a general decrease in the amount of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the product. A middle molecular weight region of PCS in the GPC appears when the reaction temperature approaches 450°C; and, the as-synthesized PCS was stable with low Si–Si bond content. Synthetically, the conversion process is initially the formation of PCS by thermal decomposition of LPS, which is followed by an increase in molecular weight via condensation of PCS molecules.