Coupling of poly(lactic acid) with a polyurethane elastomer by reactive processing

A segmented polyurethane elastomer (PU) was synthesized in poly(lactic acid) (PLA) melt by reactive processing. The isocyanate component was anticipated to react with the end-groups of PLA resulting in the formation of block-copolymers. The stoichiometry of the functional groups was optimized in the preliminary experiments. Two different processing methods were compared in the further experiments: conventional mixing of PU with PLA (PLA/PU), and reactive blending (PLA-b-PU). The comparison of the structure and properties of compatibilized reactive blends and conventional physical blends clearly shows the benefits of reactive processing. Coupling resulted in a finer dispersion of the particles in the matrix leading to better mechanical properties in the reactive blend. The successful synthesis of PLA-b-PU block copolymers was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy. The isocyanate component was found to react only with the hydroxyl end-groups of PLA, while the formation of amide and acylurea groups was not detected on the carboxyl end

Coupling of poly(lactic acid) with a polyurethane elastomer by reactive processing

A segmented polyurethane elastomer (PU) was synthesized in poly(lactic acid) (PLA) melt by reactive processing. The isocyanate component was anticipated to react with the end-groups of PLA resulting in the formation of block-copolymers. The stoichiometry of the functional groups was optimized in the preliminary experiments. Two different processing methods were compared in the further experiments: conventional mixing of PU with PLA (PLA/PU), and reactive blending (PLA-b-PU). The comparison of the structure and properties of compatibilized reactive blends and conventional physical blends clearly shows the benefits of reactive processing. Coupling resulted in a finer dispersion of the particles in the matrix leading to better mechanical properties in the reactive blend. The successful synthesis of PLA-b-PU block copolymers was confirmed by NMR spectroscopy. The isocyanate component was found to react only with the hydroxyl end-groups of PLA, while the formation of amide and acylurea groups was not detected on the carboxyl end

Introduction of inferential statistics in high school in Hungary

International audienc

Introduction of inferential statistics in high school in Hungary

International audienc

Time and energy dependent dynamics of the STM tip - Graphene system

Probability current and probability density of wave packets was calculated by solving the three dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a local potential model of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip – graphene system. Geometrical and electronic structure effects of the three dimensional tunneling process are identified by studying three models of increasing complexity: a jellium half space, a narrow jellium sheet, and a local one electron pseudopotential. It was found that some of the key characteristics of the STM tip – graphene tunneling process are already present at the simple jellium models. In the STM tip – jellium half space system the direction of the momentum does not change during the tunneling event, hence this setup is characterised by introducing an effective distance. For the STM tip – narrow jellium sheet system the direction of the momentum is changed from vertical to horizontal during the tunneling event. The wave packet preferentially tunnels into the bound state of the jellium sheet. For the atomistic model of the graphene sheet an anisotropic spreading of the wave packet was found for hot electrons. This may open new opportunities to build carbon based nanoelectronic devices