Role of chain symmetry and hydrogen bonding in segmented copolymers with monodisperse hard segments

Thermoplastic segmented polyurethane and polyurea copolymers whose monodisperse hard segments are based on only a single diisocyanate molecule are discussed. The solid-state structure-property behavior of these materials demonstrates that a proper selection of the level of symmetry and/or cohesiveness of the hard microdomains may allow elimination of the traditional requirement of chain extension to obtain melt processable segmented urethanes, and more specifically, urea copolymers with useful structural properties.     

Preparation of segmented, high molecular weight, aliphatic poly(ether-urea) copolymers in isopropanol. In-situ FTIR studies and polymer synthesis

The use of isopropanol (IPA) as the reaction solvent for the preparation of high molecular weight segmented polyether-urea copolymers based on cycloaliphatic diisocyanates was investigated. Reactivity of IPA with bis(4-isocyanatohexyl)methane (HMDI) and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) was studied between 0 and 40 °C using in-situ FTIR spectroscopy. HMDI, which has secondary isocyanate groups, shows a very slow reaction with a large excess of IPA at 0 and 23 °C. Analysis of the kinetic data indicates an activation energy of 51 kJ/mol for the reaction between HMDI and IPA. As expected, IPDI, which has both a primary and a secondary isocyanate (NCO) group, reacts faster with IPA compared with HMDI, which only has secondary NCO groups. However, the rate of reaction of IPDI with IPA at 0 °C is extremely slow (approximately 1% consumption of isocyanate in 60 min) thus allowing the use of IPA as the reaction solvent for polyether-urea synthesis. Preparation of high molecular weight, high-strength HMDI and IPDI based polyether-urea segmented copolymers in IPA has been demonstrated. Thermal analysis and stress-strain analyses were used to characterize the products.     

Modification of polyolefins with silicone copolymers. II. Thermal,mechanical, and tribological behavior of PP and HDPE blended with silicone copolymers

Thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) films with permanent, silicone‐rich, low‐friction, low‐abrasion surfaces were obtained by melt blending of high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)‐containing block copolymers. Two different block copolymers, a siloxane–urea segmented copolymer and a polycaprolactone‐b‐PDMS triblock copolymer were used as modifiers at levels between 0.1 and 5.0% by weight. Blends were prepared in a twin‐screw extruder. Modified films displayed surfaces with very low friction coefficients and high abrasion resistance, which depended on the type and the level of additive incorporated into the system. Bulk properties of these modified systems, such as crystallization and melting behavior or tensile properties, were not affected. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 535–540, 2002; DOI 10.1002/app.10279     

Chemical,thermal, and mechanical properties and ultraviolet transmittance of novel nano-hydroxyapatite/polyethylene terephthalate milk bottles

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/nano-hydroxyapatite (nHAp) composite granules were obtained using twin-screw extruder. Preforms were prepared by injection molding and then PET/nHAp bottles were produced by blow molding. For PET bottles with nHAp, the migration amounts of carboxylic acid (COOH), acetaldehyde (AA), diethylene glycol (DEG), and isophthalic acid (IPA); glass transition temperature (T_g); melting temperature (T_m); and the maximum crystallization temperature (T_cry) were measured. The load-carrying capacity, burst strength, stress cracking, and regional material distribution tests were carried out on the bottles. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and ultraviolet transmittance analyses were conducted to explain the changes in mechanical, chemical, physical properties, and light transmission of bottles. It was found out that the COOH amount increased and the AA content decreased with increasing nHAp amount. On the other hand, no change was observed in the amounts of DEG and IPA. Although the mechanical properties such as load-carrying capacity and burst strength of the bottles have improved, it has been determined that the standard environmental stress crack resistance test procedure cannot be applied to such a composite. Experimental findings indicate that nHAp disrupts the chemical structure of PET and it isolates harmful chemicals such as AA by forming intermolecular bonds. Moreover, with the addition of up to 0.8% nHAp, PET bottles block the light transmission approximately 80% within 400–700 nm wave length zone. The study demonstrates that the PET/nHAp composite bottles can be used in the food industry, particularly in the packaging of milk and milk products which are vulnerable to light exposure.     

Prediction of compressive strength of heavyweight concrete by ANN and FL models

The compressive strength of heavyweight concrete which is produced using baryte aggregates has been predicted by artificial neural network (ANN) and fuzzy logic (FL) models. For these models 45 experimental results were used and trained. Cement rate, water rate, periods (7–28–90 days) and baryte (BaSO₄) rate (%) were used as inputs and compressive strength (MPa) was used as output while developing both ANN and FL models. In the models, training and testing results have shown that ANN and FL systems have strong potential for predicting compressive strength of concretes containing baryte (BaSO₄).     

Isothermal corrosion testing of frit furnace refractories

In this paper, the corrosion behaviour of aluminosilicate type refractories in frit melts is studied in an isothermal corrosion test setup. A refractory brick of largely andalusite and sillimanite composition was compared to another refractory brick of mullite and sillimanite composition, both of which were made by different manufacturers for use in different frit furnaces. The industrial frit used for corrosion tests was a commercial product used in a wall tile glaze formulation. Corrosion tests conducted under isothermal conditions provide quantitative and reproducible data about the corrosion performance of refractories. In this study, tests were performed by partially immersing a 15 mm × 15 mm × 115 mm refractory specimen into a frit melt at temperatures between 1404 and 1504 °C. The effects of temperature, duration of exposure and the refractory brick type were investigated using a statistically designed set of experiments. The ANOVA (analysis of variance) table indicated that temperature and test duration were the most important factor effects, as expected. Increasing both temperature and exposure duration led to an increased amount of corrosion as measured by the cross-sectional area loss of the corroded refractory specimen. Postmortem microstructural analysis was also done on the specimens, with extensive amount of ZnO·Al₂O₃ precipitation observed along the frit–refractory interface, where crystals of mullite and alumina were also found to precipitate. Increasing the amount of exposure time and temperature produced more ZnO·Al₂O₃ precipitation. As identified by SEM-EDS analysis, mullite crystals were in the needle-like morphology, while alumina crystals were generally cubic. Additional experiments were conducted by rotating the specimens in the melt at 50 rpm of rotational speed. Due to the reduction of boundary layer thickness, more dissolution was observed from the rotated specimens. In all specimens, corrosion was more pronounced in the bond phase than through the large filler grains of mullite and andalusite.     

Geschäftsmodelle für dienstebasierte Informationssysteme

In this article a web service provider model is developed that allows the categorization of suppliers of web services and their underlying business models. The resulting five business models are based on three criteria of differentiation: The branch, the value and the strategic relevance for the supplier of the web services. The revenue models of web services can be direct or indirect and dependent or independent of the underlying transactions. By mapping case studies of existing web service suppliers towards a business model matrix, the benefit of the developed concept can be shown.     

Measurements and statistical model calculations of activation cross-sections for 26Mg(n,α)23Ne reaction between 13.6 and 14.9 MeV neutron energies

Activation cross-sections were measured at neutron energies from 13.6 to 14.9 MeV for the reaction ²⁶Mg(n,α)²³Ne. The production of relatively short-lived activity and the spectra accumulation have been carried out by the cyclic activation method. Corrections were made for the effects of gamma-ray attenuation, random coincidence summing (pulse pile-up), dead time, and scattered low energy neutron contribution. Statistical model calculations for which the pre-equilibrium emission effects are taken into consideration were also performed. Results were compared with the previous investigations.