A review of current development in natural fiber composites for structural and infrastructure applications

Natural fiber composites (NFC) as the name implies is made of natural resources thus possesses environmentally beneficial properties such as biodegradability. With its natural characteristics, NFC is obtaining more attention in recent years in various application including automotive, merchandise, structural and infrastructure. Several studies have shown that NFC can be developed into a load-bearing structural member for applications in structural and infrastructure application. As an engineered material, similar with synthetic fiber composites, the properties of NFC can be tailored to meet certain requirements. The challenge in working with NFC is the large variation in properties and characteristics. The properties of NFC to a large extent influenced by the type of fibers, environmental condition where the plant fibers are sourced and the type of fiber treatments. However, with their unique and wide range of variability, natural fiber composites could emerge as a new alternative engineering material which can substitute the use of synthetic fiber composites

Kinetics of in situ epoxidation of hemp oil under heterogeneous reaction conditions: an overview with preliminary results

Epoxidised hemp oil (EHO) was synthesised in the laboratory by reacting hemp oil (HO) with peroxyacetic acid (PA) in a batch reactor. The peroxyacetic acid was formed in situ from acetic acid (AA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the presence on an acidic ion exchange resin (Amberlite IR-120) as catalyst. The overall reaction can be thought of as having two components. The first being epoxidation, a homogenous reaction which occurs at the interface of the aqueous phase and the HO phase while the second is the formation of PA, a heterogeneous reaction at the interface of the aqueous phase and the solid catalyst phase. The overall reaction kinetics were modelled by applying the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) model to heterogeneous reactions. Of the steps in the reaction it is postulated that the formation of PA is rate limiting, while the epoxidation occurs comparatively fast negating the requirement for an additional homogenous model. The diffusion steps in the reaction are also ignored in the kinetic model as it is believed that their effects are negligible due to intensive mixing in the batch reactor. Experiments were used to determine the optimal molar ratios of reactants and it was found that at these conditions 88% conversion of double bonds to epoxy groups occurred. The kinetic model was found to be in good agreement with the experimental results

Proceso sobre la ordenación de la iglesia valentina entre los Arzobispo de Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, y de Tarragona, Pedro de Albalat (1238-1246). Edición crítica y Estudio. [Reseña]

Reseña de: Vicente CASTELL MARQUÉS, Proceso sobre la ordenación de la iglesia valentina entre los Arzobispo de Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, y de Tarragona, Pedro de Albalat (1238-1246). Edición crítica y Estudio, Edición Corts valencianes, Valencia, 1996, vol. I y II, 498 y 222 pp

Development of polymer network of phenolic and epoxies resins mixed with linseed oil: pilot study

Epoxy resin was mixed with phenolic resins in different percentages by weight. Composite 40/60 means the proportion by weight of epoxy resin is 40 percent. It was found that only composites 50/50 and 40/60 could be cured in ambient conditions. Dynamic mechanical analysis showed that only these two composites form interpenetrating polymer network. The addition of linseed oil to the two resins results also in the formation of interpenetrating network irrespective of proportion by weight of the resins; the mechanical properties will only be better when the percentage by weight of epoxy resin is higher; the aim of reducing cost and at the same time maintaining the mechanical properties cannot be fully achieved because epoxy resin is much more expensive than its counterpart

Chirality distribution and transition energies of carbon nanotubes

From resonant Raman scattering on isolated nanotubes we obtained the optical transition energies, the radial breathing mode frequency and Raman intensity of both metallic and semiconducting tubes. We unambiguously assigned the chiral index (n_1,n_2) of approximately 50 nanotubes based solely on a third-neighbor tight-binding Kataura plot and find omega_RBM=214.4cm^-1nm/d+18.7cm^-1. In contrast to luminescence experiments we observe all chiralities including zig-zag tubes. The Raman intensities have a systematic chiral-angle dependence confirming recent ab-initio calculations.Comment: 4 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Vibrational and Thermal Properties of ZnX (X=Se, Te): Density Functional Theory (LDA and GGA) versus Experiment

We calculated the phonon dispersion relations of ZnX (X=Se, Te) employing ab initio techniques. These relations have been used to evaluate the temperature dependence of the respective specific heats of crystals with varied isotopic compositions. These results have been compared with mea- surements performed on crystals down to 2 K. The calculated and measured data are generally in excellent agreement with each other. Trends in the phonon dispersion relations and the correspond- ing densities of states for the zinc chalcogenide series of zincblende-type materials are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to PR