Comparative study of the mechanical and wear performance of short carbon fibers and mineral particles (Wollastonite,CaSiO3) filled epoxy composites

To improve the mechanical and tribological performance, two kinds of wollastonite fillers (fine or coarse) and short carbon fibers (5–15 vol %) were, respectively, incorporated into an epoxy resin. Fine wollastonite fillers remarkably enhanced the flexural modulus, strength, and toughness of the resin at some filler contents (i.e., 10 vol %) simultaneously, while coarse wollastonite fillers and short carbon fibers impaired most of mechanical properties except the modulus. The small particle size, low aspect ratio as well as the good adhesion to the epoxy matrix of the fine wollastonite particles are believed to be responsible for the improved strength and toughness. Tribological tests were performed under sliding and low amplitude oscillating wear conditions. All fillers enhanced the wear resistance and reduced the sliding coefficient of friction but to a different extent. Under sliding wear conditions, fine wollastonite particle‐filled epoxy displayed the highest wear resistance because of the formation of an effective transfer film and the low abrasiveness of the fillers. Under low amplitude oscillating wear conditions, both wollastonite fillers showed much higher wear resistance than short carbon fibers regardless of the filler content. The better adhesion between the wollastonite fillers and the epoxy matrix is responsible for the higher wear resistance under oscillating conditions. The wear tracks were inspected by microscopy to analyze the corresponding wear mechanisms. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 854–863, 2006     

Effect of temperature on friction and wear behaviors of polyimide (PI)‐based solid–liquid lubricating materials

The tribological properties of polyimide (PI) under four oils (including two perfluoropolyether oils and two silicon oils) lubricated conditions were comparatively investigated at room temperature in vacuum and Fomblin M30 and chlorine‐containing silicon oil were selected to study the friction and wear behaviors of PI‐based solid–liquid lubricants against steel at different temperatures in vacuum. Significant improvement in tribological performance of PI was found under oil‐lubricated conditions. The friction coefficient increased as the test temperature decreased for the mobility of liquid lubricant was limited at lower temperatures, while the wear rate exhibited distinct rule. Besides, no tribochemical reaction was detected at the contact surface of PI and chlorine‐containing silicon oil. However, the –CF₃ and fluorinated C? O groups were detected on the worn tracks of PI/Fomblin M30 by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which indicated that tribochemical reaction happened to PI and Fomblin M30 under high temperature as well as the simulation of friction heat. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crystallization and thermoreversible gelation of poly(butylene terephthalate)–epoxy mixtures

The thermoreversible gelation of solutions of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) and a liquid diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A epoxy has been investigated. The morphology of the gels and the conditions under which they form have been characterized by optical microscopy, thermal analysis, and x-ray scattering. Gels were found to form under two different conditions and with different morphologies. Gels formed after a considerable delay when homogenous PBT-epoxy solutions were cooled to slightly below the dissolution temperature of crystalline PBT. These gels contained large, irregular PBT spherulites and smaller birefringent interspherulitic matter. The melting of these gels and the onset of macroscopic flow coincided with the melting of the interspherulitic matter, and occurred before the melting of the large spherulites. Thermoreversible gels formed very quickly when PBT-epoxy solutions were self-nucleated by heating a dispersion of crystalline PBT in epoxy slightly and briefly above the dissolution temperature and then cooling. These gels displayed only a weak background birefringence and were molten when the weak birefringence disappeared. In both cases, gelation occurred by the formation of a three-dimensional PBT network in the epoxy liquid, and the nodes of the network were crystalline PBT particles. $ 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Modeling of synergistic solvent extraction of Zr(IV) / HCl / TOA+Cyanex 921 system using statistical analysis and neural network

Multi-linear regression analysis (MLR), radial basis function (RBF) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) of artificial neural network (ANN) with five inputs (temperature, concentrations of HCl, TOA, Cyanex 921, Zr (IV) and percentage of extraction (%E)) as only output were employed for the construction of models. It was observed that ANN (RBF and MLP) performed better as compared to the MLR model. Based on the models proposed, the extraction of Zr(IV) could be predicted under variable experimental conditions of concentrations of HCl, TOA (Tri-n-octylamine), Cyanex 921 (Tri-n-octyl phosphineoxide), Zr(IV) and temperature. The nonlinear and complex relation between the percentage of extraction and operating variables have been determined using two and three layered feed forward neural network with back-propagation of error learning algorithm. Uncertainties in data have been determined in terms of statistical parameters such as root mean-squared error and R-squared values to check the efficiency of the model for prediction.     

Prediction of water's isotropic nuclear shieldings and indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants (SSCCs) using correlation‐consistent and polarization‐consistent basis sets in the Kohn–Sham basis set limit

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to estimate water's isotropic nuclear shieldings and indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants (SSCCs) in the Kohn–Sham (KS) complete basis set (CBS) limit. Correlation‐consistent cc‐pVxZ and cc‐pCVxZ (x = D, T, Q, 5, and 6), and their modified versions (ccJ‐pVxZ, unc‐ccJ‐pVxZ, and aug‐cc‐pVTZ‐J) and polarization‐consistent pc‐n and pcJ‐n (n = 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4) basis sets were used, and the results fitted with a simple mathematical formula. The performance of over 20 studied density functionals was assessed from comparison with the experiment. The agreement between the CBS DFT‐predicted isotropic shieldings, spin–spin values, and the experimental values was good and similar for the modified correlation‐consistent and polarization‐consistent basis sets. The BHandH method predicted the most accurate ¹H, ¹⁷O isotropic shieldings and ¹J(OH) coupling constant (deviations from experiment of about ? 0.2 and ? 1 ppm and 0.6 Hz, respectively). The performance of BHandH for predicting water isotropic shieldings and ¹J(OH) is similar to the more advanced methods, second‐order polarization propagator approximation (SOPPA) and SOPPA(CCSD), in the basis set limit. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investigation of some physicochemical properties of camphor sulfonic acid (CSA)–doped poly(o-anisidine) (PoAN) and CSA-doped PoAN/ABS composites

Camphor sulfonic acid (CSA)–doped poly(o-anisidine) (PoAN) has been found to possess the electrical conductivity of 10 S/cm. This value is rather low compared to that of (≈200 S/cm) CSA-doped polyaniline, which may arise from a limited transformation of coil-like conformation to an expanded one. Viscosity data and optical absorption spectra provided strong evidence for the existence of coil-like CSA-doped PoAN chains in m-cresol. The shift of IR bands of benzenoid and quinoid rings toward a lower wave number and the appearance of the bands at ≈1600 and 1173 cm⁻¹ (the IR is inactive but becomes active on doping) suggested the protonation of CSA-doped PoAN. The thermogravimetric profile of CSA-doped PoAN showed a five-step decomposition pattern with the thermal stability up to 134 °C. The mass spectra taken simultaneously with the thermogram revealed that dopant CSA is completely eliminated around 360 °C, but the breakdown of polymer chains does not occur very briskly at this temperature. Composites of CSA-doped PoAN with insulating acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene copolymer (ABS) were fabricated, and it was found that the composites showed a percolation behavior in which the electrical conductivity rose sharply at about 4 weight % of CSA-doped PoAN in the ABS composite. The STM data demonstrated the formation of a continuous path at the percolation threshold. The Poole–Frenkel effect was observed for the conduction scheme in the CSA-doped PoAN/ABS composite. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 4596–4604, 1999     

Chitosan–poly(acrylic acid) nanofiber networks prepared by the doping induction of succinic acid and its ammonia‐response studies

Chitosan–poly(acrylic acid) (CS–PAA) composite membrane with a 3D network nano‐structure was prepared using an electrostatic interaction process by adding succinic acid as a branch promoter. Variations of the final solution pH values, concentration of CS, and PAA/CS volume ratio were examined systematically for their effects on average fiber diameter size, intensity of surface charge, and tendency of network formation. It was found that nanofiber size was affected by the mixing ratio of PAA and CS, the concentration of CS, and the final pH of the CS–PAA solution. The smallest diameter size distribution of the scaffold can be obtained when the PAA/CS ratio is in the range of 2:1–1:2 in a pH 3 environment. Negative charge nanofibers prepared using PAA and CS in a ratio of 2:1 in pH 3 environments had an average diameter of 215 nm. The formation of the interconnecting 3D self‐organized network structure can be built up with limited parasitic branching by crystallized succinic acid. The gas response to ammonia, including sensitivity and response time, was evaluated using impedance spectroscopy at room temperature. The results of sensing experiments indicate that the sensitivity of nanofibrous membrane (NM)‐coated sensors was eight times higher than that of continuous film‐coated sensors. NM‐coated sensors exhibited high sensitivity towards a low concentration of ammonia, as low as 50 ppm at a relative humidity of 45%. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vinyl homo/copolymerization of norbornene and ethylene using sterically enhanced 1,2‐bis(arylimino)acenaphthene–palladium precatalysts

A family of unsymmetrical 1,2‐bis(imino)acenaphthene‐palladium methyl chloride complexes [1‐[2,6‐{(C₆H₅)₂CH}₂‐ 4‐{C(CH₃)₃}‐C₆H₂N]‐2‐(ArN)C₂C₁₀H₆]PdMeCl (Ar = 2,6‐Me₂Ph Pd1 , 2,6‐Et₂Ph Pd2 , 2,6‐ⁱPr₂Ph Pd3 , 2,4,6‐Me₃Ph Pd4 , 2,6‐Et₂‐4‐MePh Pd5 ) have been prepared and fully characterized by ¹H/¹³C NMR, FTIR spectroscopies, and elemental analysis. X‐ray diffraction analysis of Pd2 complex revealed a square planar geometry. Upon activation with methylaluminoxane, all the palladium complexes displayed high activities for norbornene (NBE) homo‐polymerization producing insoluble polymer. For the copolymerization of NBE with ethylene, Pd4 complex exhibited good activities with high incorporation of ethylene (up to 59.2–77.4%) and the resultant copolymer showed high molecular weights as maximum as 150.5 kg mol⁻¹. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 922–930