76,029 research outputs found
Quasi-melt Processes For Single Polymer Composites And Products Thereof
Processes and compounds are described herein for single polymer composites based on a process for making the single polymer composites that includes the steps of heating a matrix material to create polymer melt, cooling the polymer melt to below its Tm to create an undercooled polymer melt, or quasi-melt, and combining the melt with an enhancing or reinforcing material to produce a single polymer composite. The process can produce materials that do not have any degradation of the polymer characteristic of the enhancing material due to melting of the polymer in the enhancing material.Georgia Tech Research Corporatio
Dynamic surface decoupling in a sheared polymer melt
We propose that several mechanisms contribute to friction in a polymer melt
adsorbed at a structured surface. The first one is the well known
disentanglement of bulk polymer chains from the surface layer. However, if the
surface is ideal at the atomic scale, the adsorbed parts of polymer chains can
move along the equipotential lines of the surface potential. This gives rise to
a strong slippage of the melt. For high shear rates chains partially desorb.
However, the friction force on adsorbed chains increases, resulting in
quasi-stick boundary conditions. We propose that the adsorbed layers can be
efficiently used to adjust the friction force between the polymer melt and the
surface
Effects of a nanoscopic filler on the structure and dynamics of a simulated polymer melt and the relationship to ultra-thin films
We perform molecular dynamics simulations of an idealized polymer melt
surrounding a nanoscopic filler particle to probe the effects of a filler on
the local melt structure and dynamics. We show that the glass transition
temperature of the melt can be shifted to either higher or lower
temperatures by appropriately tuning the interactions between polymer and
filler. A gradual change of the polymer dynamics approaching the filler surface
causes the change in the glass transition. We also find that while the bulk
structure of the polymers changes little, the polymers close to the surface
tend to be elongated and flattened, independent of the type of interaction we
study. Consequently, the dynamics appear strongly influenced by the
interactions, while the melt structure is only altered by the geometric
constraints imposed by the presence of the filler. Our findings show a strong
similarity to those obtained for ultra-thin polymer films (thickness nm) suggesting that both ultra-thin films and filled-polymer systems might
be understood in the same context
Thixotropic behavior of metal-containing coordination polymers: Melt viscosity of neutral aliphatic polyesters with Zn carboxylates
The viscosity behavior of polymer melts containing complexes formed between the neutralized polyester poly(diethylene glycol-co-succinic acid) and Zn acetates is discussed. The melt viscosity of these materials increases with the concentration of metal ions, and shows strong thixotropy and shear thinning. This behavior is attributed to the formation of coordination bonds between the electron donor groups within the polyester chain, and empty coordination sites of the various Zn acetate salts. The coordination complexes were obtained in situ in the polymer melt, which contains well-dispersed ZnO, by adding an equimolar amount of CH3COOH. It is proposed that the shear applied to the polymer melt destroys the polar network of the coordination polymer at a rate that is greater than the rate of reformation of the coordination bonds for the sample returning back to equilibrium, following a shear deformation
On the nonlocal viscosity kernel of mixtures
In this report we investigate the multiscale hydrodynamical response of a
liquid as a function of mixture composition. This is done via a series of
molecular dynamics simulations where the wave vector dependent viscosity kernel
is computed for three mixtures each with 7-15 different compositions. We
observe that the nonlocal viscosity kernel is dependent on composition for
simple atomic mixtures for all the wave vectors studied here, however, for a
model polymer melt mixture the kernel is independent of composition for large
wave vectors. The deviation from ideal mixing is also studied. Here it is shown
that a Lennard-Jones mixture follows the ideal mixing rule surprisingly well
for a large range of wave vectors, whereas for both the Kob-Andersen mixture
and the polymer melt large deviations are found. Furthermore, for the polymer
melt the deviation is wave vector dependent such that there exists a critical
length scale at which the ideal mixing goes from under-estimating to
over-estimating the viscosity
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