Optimizing of vented injection molding on mechanical performance and miscibility of recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) and polycarbonate blends

Blending of recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) (RPET) and polycarbonate (PC) was performed by melt compounding. The blends were subsequently fabricated to dumbbell specimens by vented injection molding. The mechanical properties, thermal characteristic and morphology of RPET/PC blends were investigated as a function of PC contents. Vented injection molding presented an advantage for superior mechanical properties of RPET/PC blends. The addition of PC enhanced impact strength and fracture toughness with remaining tensile properties. The glass transition temperatures of PET and PC shifted toward each other, which indicated their partial miscibility of RPET and PC in the blends. The toughness mechanism of RPET and PC was related to core-shell structure and good interfacial adhesion at higher contents of PC.

Computational Characterization of Micro-To Macroscopic Deformation Behavior of Double Network Hydrogel

To take advantage of the toughness mechanism of DN gels and explore the possibility for engineering application as the structural member, the information on the mechanical behaviour of DN gels under various loading conditions is indispensable. Therefore, in this paper, we at first constitute a model of DN gel by paralleling a slider element with a nonlinear rubber elasticity spring element based on the nonaffine molecular chain network model, where each element represents the first and the second network of DN gel respectively. The theoretical stress-strain relation of this model shows a strain softening and subsequent strain hardening response, which has been considered as an agent of the propagation of the necking during the simple tension of glassy polymer. Continuously, based on this model, we propose a constitutive equation for DN gel and a three-dimensional simple tension simulation is performed. The computational results show that the propagation of the necking together with the macroscopic mechanical response of DN gel can be reproduced by the proposed model very well.

Laminated Microstructure and Toughness Mechanism of Abalone Shell

SEM observation on an abalone shell shows that the shell is a kind of bioceramic composite consisting of inorganic aragonite sheets and organic collagen protein matter. The aragonite sheets possess long and thin shape and are divided by the collagen protein matter, which compose a kind of laminated microstructure of the shell. The fracture surface energy of the laminated microstructure is investigated and compared with non-laminated microstructure based on its representative model. It shows that the fracture surface energy of the laminated microstructure is markedly larger than that of the non-laminated microstructure and endows the shell with high fracture toughness.

Microstructure and Toughness Mechanism of Tooth

Tooth is a kind of biomaterial in nature. It behaves favorable strength, stiffness and fracture toughness, which are closely related to its fine microstructure. The observation of scanning electron microscope (SEM) on a mature tooth shows that the tooth is a kind of natural bioceramic composite consisting of hydroxyapatite layers and collagen protein matrix. The observation also shows that the hydroxyapatite layers consist of long and thin hydroxyapatite sheets and that all the hydroxyapatite sheets are arranged in a kind of parallel distribution. The maximum pullout energy of the hydroxyapatite sheets, which is closely related to the fracture toughness of the tooth, is investigated based on the representative model of the parallel distribution. It shows that the long and thin shape as well as the parallel distribution of the hydroxyapatite sheets increase the maximum pullout energy and enhance the fracture toughness of the tooth.