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High melt strength polypropylene (HMS-PP)/propylene-based elastomer (PBE) microcellular foams were prepared by the extrusion foam method. The fundamental mechanism of PBE improving the foaming properties of HMS-PP was investigated. PBE 6102, with a low melt flow rate and high ethylene content, enables HMS-PP/PBE blends to form a microphase-separated structure and maintain good melt strength and pronounced strain hardening, which would promote cell nucleation and hold cell structure at relatively high temperatures. Furthermore, PBE 6102 postpones HMS-PP crystallization and decreases the optimum foaming temperature, which helps balance melt elasticity and viscosity near the foaming window to avoid cell rupturing and merging. The introduction of PBE 6102 does not reduce the crystallization rate of HMS-PP nor the crystallinity of the foamed samples, fixing the cell structure to prevent collapse during the cell solidification stage. Microcellular HMS-PP/PBE 6102 foams with a high expansion ratio, small cell size, and large cell count were successfully fabricated. KEYWORDS blends, crystallization, extrusion foaming, microphase separation, strain hardening, 1 | INTRODUCTION Polypropylene (PP) foams are considered the best substitute for many traditional thermoplastic foams and are one of the most promising materials. [1] Due to the advantages of [...]

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foams have the characteristics of being lightweight and high strength, as well as offering good heat resistance, minimal water absorption, etc., and they have been widely used in the wind power field. In addition, they are being promisingly applied in automotive, rail, marine, construction, and other related fields. Therefore, the flame retardancy(FR) of PET foams is an issue that requires investigation. The addition of flame retardants would affect the chain extension reaction, viscoelasticity, and foamability of PET. In this study, zinc diethyl hypophosphite (ZDP) and decabromodiphenylethane (DBDPE) were used to form a synergistic FR system, in which ZDP is an acid source and DBDPE is a gas source, and both of them synergistically produced an expanded carbon layer to improve the flame retardancy of PET foams. The ratio of ZDP and DBDPE is crucial for the carbon yield and the expansion and thermal stability of the char layers. At the ZDP/DBDPE ratios of 9/3 and 7/5, the thickness of the char layers is about 3–4 mm, the limiting oxygen index (LOI) values of FR modified PET are 32.7% and 33.6%, respectively, and the vertical combustion tests both reached the V-0 level. As for the extruded phosphorous/bromine synergism FR PET foams, ZDP/DBDPE ratios of 3:1 and 2:1 were applied. As a result, the vertical combustion grade of foamed specimens could still reach V-0 grade, and the LOI values are all over 27%, reaching the refractory grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digitalization of information is crucial for the upgrading of the bayberry digital agriculture industry, while the low-cost information detection sensing equipment for bayberry are a bottleneck for the digital development of the industry. The existing rapid and non-destructive detection devices for fruit acidity and sugar content mainly use near-infrared and mid-infrared spectral characteristic for detection. These devices use expensive InGaAs sensor, which are difficult to promote and apply in the bayberry digital industry. This study is based on the high-spectral range of 454–998 nm in bayberry fruit to study the mechanism of fruit sugar and acidity content detection and to develop a portable bayberry fruit sugar and acidity detection device using Si-sensor in order to achieve low-cost quality parameter detection of bayberry fruit. The research results show that: Based on the hyperspectral of bayberry fruit, the sensitive wavelength for sugar content inversion is 610 nm, and the inversion accuracy (RMSE) is 1.399Brix; the sensitive wavelength for pH inversion is 570 nm, and the inversion accuracy (RMSE) is 0.1329. Based on the above spectroscopic detection mechanism and spectral dimension reduction methods, combined with low-cost Si-sensor (400–1000 nm), a low-cost non-destructive portable bayberry fruit sugar and acidity detection device has been developed, with detection accuracies of 94.74% and 97.14%, respectively. This bayberry fruit sugar and acidity detector provides a low-cost portable non-destructive quality detection instrument of bayberry, which is in line with the industrial group of low consumption in which the bayberry is mainly cultivated on a small scale, accelerating the digitalization process of the bayberry industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polypropylene/poly(butylene terephthalate) (PP/PBT) microfibrillar composites (MFCs) were prepared through in situ one-step direct extrusion using a triangle-arrayed triple-screw extruder (TTSE) at a processing temperature between the melting points of two components. The orthogonal experimental method was designed to assess the effects of the PBT content and processing parameters (temperature, screw speed, and feed rate) on the morphology of PBT fibrils. It can be found that the most important influence factor on the fibril formation is the PBT content, followed by temperature, feed rate, and screw speed. Furthermore, the morphological evolution procedures of the dispersed phase started from spherical pellets to ellipsoids or ribbons, forming short fibrils, and consequently high-aspect-ratio fibrils appeared under the alternating shear-extensional flow field. Moreover, the rheological properties of linear PP incorporating fibrillated PBT were thoroughly investigated. The relaxation time of blends with various fibrous PBT was linearly proportional to the aspect ratio of fibrils. Strain-hardening in extensional flow was observed for blends with long fibrils, and the strain-hardening factor grew with the fibrillar aspect ratio, indicating the formation of a physical entanglement network between fibrils and matrix. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:1166-1173, 2018., INTRODUCTION Microfibrillar composites (MFCs), in which the dispersed particles are converted to micro- or nano-fibrillar structure in the blends, have aroused widespread interest in polymer science, materials science, and nanotechnology [...]

In this study, polyamide-66/poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PA66/PPO) blends with high viscosity ratio were processed by a self-designed triangle-arrayed triple-screw extruder (TTSE, which simulates extensional flow) and a commercial twin-screw extruder (TSE), respectively. Furthermore, in order to improve the mechanical properties of the immiscible PA66/PPO blends, PPO-grafted maleic anhydride (PPO-g-MA) and styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS) block copolymer were used. The mechanical properties, phase morphology, and rheological properties of both binary PA66/PPO blends and toughened PA66/PPO/ PPO-g-MA blends were comprehensively investigated to compare the above mentioned two processing method. Samples processed with TTSE exhibited better mechanical properties than the TSE-processed blends. The morphologies of the blends were examined by scanning electron microscopy, exhibiting smaller particles sizes and narrower particle size distributions, which were attributed to the significant effects of extensional flow in TTSE. The toughening mechanism of compatibilized blends was investigated through morphology analysis, dynamic mechanical, and rhelogical analysis. Thus, TTSE with an extensional effect was proved to be efficient in the blending of high viscosity ratio polymers., INTRODUCTION Poly amide (PA), as one of the most important engineering plastics, displays excellent chemical resistance and processability. However, most PAs have disadvantages such as poor dimensional stability due to [...]

Three-dimensional flow field of triangle arrayed triple-screw extruder (TTSE) in different feed rates, screw speeds and screw configurations were simulated by POLYFLOW. Polypropylene processing by TTSE was tested to validate the numerical simulation. The reliability of simulation was tested directly and indirectly by comparing the axial pressure difference and residence time distribution (RTD) separately. The results show that the axial pressure differences from the simulations and experiments were in high agreement. The simulated and experimental RTD curves show the same trend, and so are the simulated and experimental average residence times. These results prove the reliability of simulation and its guidance to the experiment., INTRODUCTION Triangle arrayed triple-screw extruder (TTSE) is a novel type of polymer processing equipment with special mixing characteristics. It has three meshing zones and a central region which have great [...]

In this study, cold atmospheric pressure plasma jet was adopted to glass fibers surface modification with tetraethyl orthosilicate as a precursor. To enhance the interfacial bonding forces of glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (GFRP) composites, SiOx nanoparticles were polymerized on the fiber surfaces. The effect of two factors (the distance between nozzle and fiber (D) and the treatment time (T)) on the interfacial bonding behavior of GFRP composites was studied. The modified fibers and composites properties, including surface topography, chemical composition, wettability and interfacial mechanical properties, were studied comprehensively. The optimal parameters were obtained at D = 17 mm and T = 12 s. Our results indicated that the interlaminar shear strength of GFRP composites was increased by 30.79% compared to control group. Further studies found that plasma treatment introduced larger surface roughness, surface energy and more oxygen-containing functional groups, which was responsible for the interlaminar shear strength improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]