Chain entanglement, mechanical properties and drawability of poly(lactide)

1994 ◽  
Vol 272 (9) ◽  
pp. 1068-1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Grijpma ◽  
J. P. Penning ◽  
A. J. Pennings
Gels ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Kenneth P. Mineart ◽  
Cameron Hong ◽  
Lucas A. Rankin

Organogels have recently been considered as materials for transdermal drug delivery media, wherein their transport and mechanical properties are among the most important considerations. Transport through organogels has only recently been investigated and findings highlight an inextricable link between gels’ transport and mechanical properties based upon the formulated polymer concentration. Here, organogels composed of styrenic triblock copolymer and different aliphatic mineral oils, each with a unique dynamic viscosity, are characterized in terms of their quasi-static uniaxial mechanical behavior and the internal diffusion of two unique solute penetrants. Mechanical testing results indicate that variation of mineral oil viscosity does not affect gel mechanical behavior. This likely stems from negligible changes in the interactions between mineral oils and the block copolymer, which leads to consistent crosslinked network structure and chain entanglement (at a fixed polymer concentration). Conversely, results from diffusion experiments highlight that two penetrants—oleic acid (OA) and aggregated aerosol-OT (AOT)—diffuse through gels at a rate inversely proportional to mineral oil viscosity. The inverse dependence is theoretically supported by the hydrodynamic model of solute diffusion through gels. Collectively, our results show that organogel solvent variation can be used as a design parameter to tailor solute transport through gels while maintaining fixed mechanical properties.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 971 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Vigani ◽  
Silvia Rossi ◽  
Giulia Milanesi ◽  
Maria Bonferoni ◽  
Giuseppina Sandri ◽  
...  

The aim of the present work was to investigate how the molecular weight (MW) of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), a synthetic polymer able to improve alginate (ALG) electrospinnability, could affect ALG-based fiber morphology and mechanical properties. Two PEO grades, having different MWs (high, h-PEO, and low, l-PEO) were blended with ALG: the concentrations of both PEOs in each mixture were defined so that each h-PEO/l-PEO combination would show the same viscosity at high shear rate. Seven ALG/h-PEO/l-PEO mixtures were prepared and characterized in terms of viscoelasticity and conductivity and, for each mixture, a complex parameter rH/rL was calculated to better identify which of the two PEO grades prevails over the other in terms of exceeding the critical entanglement concentration. Thereafter, each mixture was electrospun by varying the process parameters; the fiber morphology and mechanical properties were evaluated. Finally, viscoelastic measurements were performed to verify the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonds between the two PEO grades and ALG. rH/rL has been proved to be the parameter that better explains the effect of the electrospinning conditions on fiber dimension. The addition of a small amount of h-PEO to l-PEO was responsible for a significant increase in fiber mechanical resistance, without affecting the nano-scale fiber size. Moreover, the mixing of h-PEO and l-PEO improved the interaction with ALG, resulting in an increase in chain entanglement degree that is functional in the electrospinning process.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Tobias Bubmann ◽  
Andreas Seidel ◽  
Holger Ruckdäschel ◽  
Volker Altstädt

Reactive compounding of terminally phenolic OH-functionalized polycarbonate (PC) with epoxy-functionalized polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) prepared by copolymerization with glycidyl methacrylate was investigated. It was spectroscopically demonstrated that a PC/PMMA copolymer was formed during the melt reaction of the functional groups. Zirconium acetylacetonate could catalytically accelerate this reaction. Correlations of the phenomenological (optical and mechanical) properties with the molecular level and mesoscopic (morphological) structure were discussed. By the investigated reactive compounding process, transparent PC/PMMA blends with two-phase morphologies were obtained in a continuous twin-screw extruder, which, for the first time, combined the high transmission of visible light with excellent mechanical performance (e.g., synergistically improved tensile and flexural strength and high scratch resistance). The transparency strongly depended on (a) the degree of functionalization in both PC and PMMA, (b) the presence of the catalyst, and (c) the residence time of the compounding process. The in-situ-formed PC/PMMA copolymer influenced the observed macroscopic properties by (a) a decrease in the interphase tension, leading to improved and stabilized phase dispersion, (b) the formation of a continuous gradient of the polymer composition and thus of the optical refractive indices in a diffuse mesoscopic interphase layer separating the PC and PMMA phases, and (c) an increase in the phase adhesion between PC and PMMA due to mechanical polymer chain entanglement in this interphase.


Author(s):  
Jacob D. Davidson ◽  
N. C. Goulbourne

Elastomers are polymers able to undergo large, reversible deformations, and their mechanical properties depend on the chemistry of individual chains as well as the topology of the crosslinked network. In this work we analyze the connection between micro-scale network structure and the macroscopic mechanical properties by performing molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the Kremer & Grest bead-spring model. The chain length and the density at which crosslinking is performed are varied in order to produce systems ranging from crosslink-dominated to highly entangled, and stress-stretch results are obtained via MD in the large deformation regime. In analogy with recent work on social, technological, and biological networks, we apply mathematical graph theory to describe elastomer networks in a multi-scale modeling framework. A matrix formulation of crosslinked polymers is presented and applied in order to identify the network structure resulting from both chemical crosslinks and physical crosslinks (entanglements). We show that spectral analysis of the crosslink and chain entanglement adjacency matrices along with the corresponding degree distributions can be used to identify and differentiate between the different materials. The spectrum of the crosslink adjacency matrix resembles a sparse regular graph, and spectrum of the intermolecular chain entanglement matrix for the highly entangled systems is shown to resemble a random graph; however, deviations are noted which require further study. A comparison of the network properties with the stress-stretch response demonstrates the influence of both crosslinks and entanglements on the large deformation mechanical behavior of an elastomer material.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (22) ◽  
pp. 8967-8975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan E. Lamm ◽  
Lingzhi Song ◽  
Zhongkai Wang ◽  
Md Anisur Rahman ◽  
Benjamin Lamm ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linglan Fu ◽  
Lan Li ◽  
Bin Xue ◽  
Jing Jin ◽  
Yi Cao ◽  
...  

Load-bearing tissues, such as muscle and cartilage, exhibit mechanical properties that often combine high elasticity, high toughness and fast recovery, despite their different stiffness (~100 kPa for muscles and one to several MPa for cartilage). The advance in protein engineering and protein mechanics has made it possible to engineer protein-based biomaterials to mimic soft load-bearing tissues, such as muscles. However, it is challenging to engineer protein biomaterials to achieve the mechanical properties exhibited by stiff tissues, such as articular cartilage, or to develop stiff synthetic extracellular matrices for cartilage stem/progenitor cell differentiation. By employing physical entanglements of protein chains and force-induced protein unfolding, here we report the engineering of a highly tough and stiff protein hydrogel to mimic articular cartilage. By crosslinking an engineered artificial elastomeric protein from its unfolded state, we introduced chain entanglement into the hydrogel network. Upon renaturation, the entangled protein chain network and forced protein unfolding entailed this single network protein hydrogel with superb mechanical properties in both tensile and compression tests, showing a Youngs modulus of ~0.7 MPa and toughness of 250 kJ/m3 in tensile testing; and ~1.7 MPa in compressive modulus and toughness of 3.2 MJ/m3. The energy dissipation in both tensile and compression tests is reversible and the hydrogel can recovery its mechanical properties rapidly. Moreover, this hydrogel can withstand a compression stress of >60 MPa without failure, amongst the highest compressive strength achieved by a hydrogel. These properties are comparable to those of articular cartilage, making this protein hydrogel a novel cartilage-mimetic biomaterial. Our study opened up a new potential avenue towards engineering protein hydrogel-based substitute for articular cartilage, and may also help develop protein biomaterials with superb mechanical properties for applications in soft actuators and robotics.


1977 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 934-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Dzierża ◽  
J. Janáček

Abstract Polyurethane elastomers are a numerous group of polymeric materials of wide practical application. They are usually formed by polyaddition of diisocyanates with hydroxyl-terminated polyesters or polyethers in the presence of low molecular weight diols or diamines as chain extenders. One may consider urethane elastomers to be block copolymers, consisting of moderately flexible long linear polyester or polyether segments and relatively stiff segments of aromatic and urethane groups. The length and structure of each block can be easily controlled. Crosslinking by an excess of diisocyanate can occur only at the stiff segments, and the number of branch points can also be controlled. The properties of these elastomers can be widely changed using components of different structures and varying their quantitative ratios. They are the results of a combination of segment flexibility, crosslinking, chain entanglement, orientation of segments, hydrogen bonding and other van der Waals forces, as well as rigidity of aromatic units. In the urethane systems, hydrogen bonding and other van der Waals forces, play a much more pronounced role than in familiar olefin-derived elastomers. Although polyurethane elastomers have very good mechanical properties at room temperature, their application is strongly limited by rapid deterioration of properties which takes place at elevated temperatures. The decay of mechanical properties of polyurethane is caused by the breaking of hydrogen and other secondary bonds, as well as by the presence of relatively weak crosslinks that make up their network. The properties of polyurethanes at elevated temperatures may, perhaps, be improved by forming additional crosslinks, besides the typical ones. Some efforts concerning this problem have been published. The aim of our study was to obtain and check the properties of polyurethane elastomers having unsaturated bonds, on which some additional crosslinks were expected to be formed in the presence of a suitable crosslinking agent.


Author(s):  
S. Fujishiro

The mechanical properties of three titanium alloys (Ti-7Mo-3Al, Ti-7Mo- 3Cu and Ti-7Mo-3Ta) were evaluated as function of: 1) Solutionizing in the beta field and aging, 2) Thermal Mechanical Processing in the beta field and aging, 3) Solutionizing in the alpha + beta field and aging. The samples were isothermally aged in the temperature range 300° to 700*C for 4 to 24 hours, followed by a water quench. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray method were used to identify the phase formed. All three alloys solutionized at 1050°C (beta field) transformed to martensitic alpha (alpha prime) upon being water quenched. Despite this heavily strained alpha prime, which is characterized by microtwins the tensile strength of the as-quenched alloys is relatively low and the elongation is as high as 30%.


Author(s):  
L.J. Chen ◽  
H.C. Cheng ◽  
J.R. Gong ◽  
J.G. Yang

For fuel savings as well as energy and resource requirement, high strength low alloy steels (HSLA) are of particular interest to automobile industry because of the potential weight reduction which can be achieved by using thinner section of these steels to carry the same load and thus to improve the fuel mileage. Dual phase treatment has been utilized to obtain superior strength and ductility combinations compared to the HSLA of identical composition. Recently, cooling rate following heat treatment was found to be important to the tensile properties of the dual phase steels. In this paper, we report the results of the investigation of cooling rate on the microstructures and mechanical properties of several vanadium HSLA steels.The steels with composition (in weight percent) listed below were supplied by China Steel Corporation: 1. low V steel (0.11C, 0.65Si, 1.63Mn, 0.015P, 0.008S, 0.084Aℓ, 0.004V), 2. 0.059V steel (0.13C, 0.62S1, 1.59Mn, 0.012P, 0.008S, 0.065Aℓ, 0.059V), 3. 0.10V steel (0.11C, 0.58Si, 1.58Mn, 0.017P, 0.008S, 0.068Aℓ, 0.10V).


Author(s):  
D. R. Clarke ◽  
G. Thomas

Grain boundaries have long held a special significance to ceramicists. In part, this has been because it has been impossible until now to actually observe the boundaries themselves. Just as important, however, is the fact that the grain boundaries and their environs have a determing influence on both the mechanisms by which powder compaction occurs during fabrication, and on the overall mechanical properties of the material. One area where the grain boundary plays a particularly important role is in the high temperature strength of hot-pressed ceramics. This is a subject of current interest as extensive efforts are being made to develop ceramics, such as silicon nitride alloys, for high temperature structural applications. In this presentation we describe how the techniques of lattice fringe imaging have made it possible to study the grain boundaries in a number of refractory ceramics, and illustrate some of the findings.


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