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In this study, the effects of polyaniline (PANI) incorporation (3 wt% of PANI) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) loading (0.1–0.7 wt%) on the mechanical, thermal, and electrical performance of epoxy matrix were investigated. The incorporation of 0.3 wt% GNPs optimally enhanced the bending strength, bending modulus, tensile strength, tensile modulus, and impact strength (90 MPa, 1422 MPa, 63 MPa, 602 MPa, and 8.29 kJm−2, respectively). At 0.3 wt% GNPs, the hybridization effect optimally enhanced the glass transition behaviour of the epoxy nanocomposites. The electrical and thermal conductivities of epoxy were improved upon the inclusion of PANI, and this increase was further augmented when the GNPs content increased to 0.3 wt%. However, higher GNPs contents deteriorated the mechanical performance and electrical and heat conduction. Field emission scanning electron microscopy showed good filler distribution and effective interactions among the GNPs, PANI, and epoxy components with appropriate compositions.

According to statistics, the energy consumption of building air conditioning system operation accounts for about 50% of the energy consumption in the building operation phase. Therefore, reducing the energy consumption of building air conditioning systems is of great significance for building energy conservation. The traditional air conditioning system sets a constant temperature during operation and then adopts the PID control method to gradually approach this target value. This method does not take into account dynamic factors such as the building environment, personnel activities, and startup equipment rates, resulting in a large waste of energy consumption and poor comfort. This paper proposes a solution combining the Internet of Things and a heuristic optimization algorithm, in which the Internet of Things is responsible for collecting real-time parameters, and the optimization algorithm is responsible for solving the optimal control strategy, to realize intelligent real-time dynamic adjustment of indoor temperature. By comparing the actual operation results, it can be seen that the control system can reduce power consumption by about 10% and increase user satisfaction by about 8%.

The finished product natural rubber latex gloves consist of latex proteins, which may pose a risk of allergic reactions in some latex-sensitive individuals. The allergic reactions depend on mild exposure to heavy exposure. An alternative solution to allergic users, usage of latex-free gloves are lack of elasticity and less comfort. This study aims to investigate natural rubber films protein reduction via three types of leaching solvent: acetic acid, sodium hydroxide, and ethanol in the leaching process. Then the influence of leaching solvent concentration on the physical properties of natural rubber gloves was analyzed. It was found that the acetic acid performed greater protein reduction effect (30.07%), followed by sodium hydroxide (27.77%), whereas the ethanol was shown to be less significant to protein reduction. All samples were fulfilling the mechanical properties as required in ASTM standard.

With the arises of environmental conscious, the usage of vertical garden system has become more popular in urban cities. Citizens can enjoys the benefits of energy and cost saving besides ornamental effect. More investigations have been conducted on green facades led to the cities ecological enhancement.However, limited plants species can be planted for green facades systems as this system does not provide sufficient soil and nutrients for common plants. Alternative plantation methods such as planted box and felt system required additional maintenance attention. The idea of using clay composite which consists of nutritious soil, water absorbing polymer and flexible cement clay potentially become alternative vertical greenery systems that offers economic and sustainable plantation platform for more variety of plants.The fabricating of clay composite involved three processes, they are: mixing, moulding and drying. Physical properties characterisation (density, pH, compression test, aging test and water immersion test) were tested on the dried fabricated clay composite to ensure their sustainability in tropical climate. The results showed that clay composite with 1.5 wt% of cement and 0.3 wt% superabsorbent polymer shows optimum water absorbing properties. This system are expected to enable more agriculture activities in urban living.

Conventional polymer blending has a shortcoming in conductivity characteristic. This research addresses the preparation of conductive thermoplastic natural rubber (TPNR) blends with graphene nanoplates (GNPs)/polyaniline (PANI) through melt blending using an internal mixer. The effect of PANI content (10, 20, 30, and 40 wt %) on the mechanical and thermal properties, thermal and electrical conductivities, and morphology observation of the TPNR/GNPs/PANI nanocomposites was investigated. The results showed that the tensile and impact properties as well as thermal conductivity of nanocomposite had improved with the incorporation of 3 wt % of GNPs and 20 wt % of PANI as compared to neat TPNR and reduced with further increase of the PANI content. It was observed that the GNPs and PANI acted as a critical component to improve the thermal stability and electrical conductivity of the TPNR/GNPs/PANI nanocomposites. The most improved conductivity of 5.22 E‐5 S/cm was observed at 3 wt % GNPs and 40 wt % PANI. Variable‐pressure scanning electron microscopy micrograph revealed the good interaction and distribution of GNPs and PANI within TPNR matrix at PANI loadings lower than 30 wt %. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48873. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, polymer composites comprised of polyurethane (PU) foam and two kinds of biomass (coco peat and sphagnum) were prepared. PU industry heavily depends on the petroleum industry. Coco peat and sphagnum are renewable resources. Their use as a reinforcing filler to increase PU foam's renewable content is yet to be explored. The PU foam was produced via a reaction between 2,4-diphenylmethane diisocyanate and palm kernel oil-based polyol (PKOP). The filler varied from 0-1.2 g. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, morphological analysis, and determination of the mechanical properties of PU foam composites were conducted to identify the effect of the fillers on the PU foam. The results showed that sphagnum has more impact than coco peat on cell structure and the apparent density of the PU foams. The foam cell lost its regular hexagonal 'bee-hive' structure, and the apparent density increased to approximately 30% more than the reference sample at 1.2 g filler loading. The PU foam filled with 1.2 g coco peat exhibited significantly improved mechanical properties, with 120% increase in tensile strength compared to the reference sample of the PU foam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to several environmental problems arising through the disposal of polymers, recycling has been growing rapidly as one of the best approaches to minimize environment pollution issue. Apart from the positive impacts towards environmental sustainability, recycling polymer is also benefiting in terms of manufacturing cost reduction, energy conservation and material resource conservation. The aim of this study was to investigate how recycling cycle affects the physical properties and mechanical properties for both used thermoplastic polymer and thermoplastic elastomer polymer. Samples were prepared by melting used polymers via melt blending technique. Results showed that tensile strength and density were decreased for thermoplastic polymer and the changes in visual are significant when the number of recycling cycle was increased. Tensile strength, yield strength and Young Modulus of thermoplastic elastomer are independent from number of recycling cycles. Presence of antioxidant fillers in thermoplastic elastomer enhanced the tensile strength (28.23%) and Young Modulus (29.16%) when the polymers were exposed to ultraviolet light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]