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Acrylic pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) were prepared by UV polymerization under varying curing conditions of both fast and slow curing, employing high- and low-intensity UV radiation, respectively. The influences of curing conditions and isobornyl acrylate (IBOA) content on PSA performance were comprehensively investigated by measurement of their rheological, thermal, and adhesive properties. In particular, rheological characterization was accomplished by several analytical methods, such as in situ UV rheology, frequency sweep, stress relaxation, and temperature ramp tests, to understand the effect of the UV curing process and IBOA content on the viscoelastic behavior of acrylic PSAs. The slow-cured samples were observed to form more tightly crosslinked networks compared to the fast-cured. On the other hand, at high loading levels of IBOA, in the case of slow curing, the sample exhibited a contrasting trend, having the shortest stress relaxation time and the highest energy dissipation; this was due to molecular chain scission occurring in the crosslinked polymer during UV polymerization. Consequently, we successfully demonstrated the influence of monomer composition of acrylic PSAs, and that of curing conditions employed in UV polymerization. This study provides valuable insights for the development of crosslinked polymer networks of acrylic PSAs for flexible display applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrophobicity of film surfaces can be enhanced by introducing wrinkling and buckling, and the wrinkling method in this study is a facile way to induce various microstructures including wrinkles and buckles in film surfaces. When buckles formed, the water contact angle parallel to the wrinkled direction (θ//) changed dramatically with strain, but the contact angle perpendicular to the wrinkled direction did not change much. It was found that the buckle structural feature was the key characteristics affecting the change in contact angle, θ//. A dimensionless number, the ratio of buckle height to spacing (Hb/Sb) was introduced to determine the relationship between the structural feature and the contact angle, θ//. The contact angle, θ// strongly depended on Hb/Sb. The thickest film (hf = 605 nm) at the highest strain (ɛ = 30%) and the highest Hb/Sb formed many large buckles, and exhibited super-hydrophobicity (θ// = 169 ± 10°). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The self-assembled oxidized carbon nanotubes (oCNTs) with the silane functionalized hexagonal boron nitrides (oCNTs@fBN) via electrostatic interaction were used to improve the thermal conductivity while maintaining the electrical insulation properties of the epoxy composites. The oCNTs were separately immobilized on the edges of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), which prevent oCNTs from continuously contacting with each other. The thermal conductivity and volume resistivity of oCNTs@fBN filler loaded epoxy composites were measured and compared with the epoxy composites with a filler of hBN, a mixed filler of oCNTs, and silane functionalized hBN (fBN). The thermal conductivity of the epoxy composites containing 20 wt% of oCNTs@fBN10 was 1.26 W·m-1·K-1, which is higher than 600% compared to that of neat epoxy and the volume resistivity of the epoxy composites was in an insulation region even at high content of oCNTs@fBN filler. The significant improvement in thermal conductivity was attributed to the formation of linkages between oCNTs and fBN and the good compatibility of oCNTs@fBN in the epoxy matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The glass transition behavior of ternary blends of polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and styrene-ethylene-propylene-styrene block copolymer (SEPS) was investigated. The blends were prepared by an internal mixer, and their dynamic mechanical properties and morphology were measured. The blends showed phase inversion at around 75wt% PS composition. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of the PP phase shifted to lower temperature as the PS contents were increased in PP/PS binary blends, probably due to the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficients between two components. As the SEPS copolymer contents were increased, the Tg's of the PP phase in the blends increased. In particular, the large increase in Tg of the PP phase was observed in the PP/PS (25/75) blends where the phase inversion takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a method for fabricating high-hardness plasma-polymer-fluorocarbon (PPFC) thin films with controllable optical and surface properties via manipulation of the target composition design and sputtering power density. The carbon/polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composite polymeric material targets with the low electrical resistance were prepared by press-molding using a mechanically mixed powder of PTFE, carbon nanotubes, and graphite. The composite targets showed electrical sheet resistances of 0.1–100 Ω/sq. PPFC thin films were deposited by mid-range frequency (MF) sputtering at power densities within 0.62~4.92 W/cm2. The maximum surface hardness of the PPFC thin film was 4.75 GPa, which was 21.6 times higher than that of fluorocarbon thin film sputtered from PTFE under the same conditions. With the increase of the carbon concentration in the target, the carbon cross-linking density of the PPFC thin film increased but the fluorine concentration decreased. The concentration of fluorine in the PPFC thin films grew with increasing sputtering power density. The MF sputtered carbon-rich PPFC thin films are controllable with physical properties of optical transmittance, surface hardness and surface water repellency which could be applied as protective layers for transparent flexible devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]