Quiescent crystallization of natural fibers–polypropylene composites

The effect of natural fibers (vetiver grass and rossells) on quiescent crystallization of polypropylene (PP) composites was analyzed in this study. Also, equilibrium melting temperature (T) of the composites was elucidated. Natural fiber‐PP composites showed lower T when compared to neat PP. Thermal analysis was performed via differential scanning calorimeter to study the crystallization kinetics. Natural fiber‐PP composites exhibited higher rate of crystallization than that of neat PP. Furthermore, spherulitic growth rate and transcrystallinity of the composites were investigated under a polarized light optical microscope. It was found that the growth rates of the composites were lower than that of neat PP. The spherulitic growth rates combined with the crystallization rates were used to calculate number of effective nuclei. It was shown that the number of effective nuclei of the composites was higher than that of neat PP. This suggested that natural fibers could act as a nucleating agent in the composite. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007     

Effect of silane coupling agent treated bovine bone based carbonated hydroxyapatite on in vitro degradation behavior and bioactivity of PLA composites

In this study, effect of treating bovine bone based carbonated hydroxyapatite (CHA) with silane coupling agent on in vitro degradation and bioactivity of PLA composites were investigated. PLA composite specimens containing CHA and silane-treated CHA were immersed in phosphate-buffered solution at 37 °C for the periods of time up to 8 weeks. The changes in specimen weights and morphologies, pH of PBS solution and PLA molecular weight were examined. The results showed that the strong interfacial bonding between silane-treated CHA and PLA matrix significantly delayed in vitro degradation of the PLA composites. However, the bioactivity of the PLA/silane treated CHA composites, determined by the formation of poorly crystalline calcium phosphate compounds on the specimen surface after immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF), seemed to be lower than that of the PLA/CHA composite.     

Effects of mixing technique and filler content on physical properties of bovine bone‐based CHA/PLA composites

This study presented influence of mixing technique as well as filler content on physical and thermal properties of bovine bone‐based carbonated hydroxyapatite (CHA)/poly(lactic acid) (PLA) composites. CHA/PLA composites at various contents of CHA were prepared by either melt‐mixing or solution‐mixing techniques. Thermal properties, morphologies, and mechanical properties of the CHA/PLA composites including molecular weight deterioration of PLA matrices were investigated. Average molecular weights of PLA in the composites prepared by both techniques decreased with increasing CHA content, whereas their molecular weight distributions (MWDs) increased. Nonetheless, average molecular weights of PLA in melt‐mixed composites were lower than those of solution‐mixed composites. With increasing CHA content, elongation at break, tensile strength, and impact strength of the composites were decreased, whereas the tensile moduli of the composites were increased. In comparison between two mixing techniques, the melt‐mixing distributed and dispersed CHA into PLA matrix more effectively than the solution‐mixing did. Therefore, tensile moduli, tensile strength, and impact strength of the melt mixed composites were higher than those of the solution‐mixed composites of the corresponding CHA content. Moreover, decomposition temperatures and % crystallinity of the melt‐mixed composites were higher than those of the solution‐mixed composites. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011.     

Glycidyl methacrylate grafted natural rubber: Synthesis,characterization, and mechanical property

Glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) was grafted onto natural rubber (NR) using emulsion polymerization method. The structures of copolymers were characterized by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H‐NMR), solid state ¹³C‐NMR spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR). The %grafting obtained from the gravimetric method and the absorbance ratio were compared. Effects of reaction temperature, GMA content, and reaction time on %grafting, grafting efficiency, and %conversion of GMA monomer were determined. Effect of %grafting on mechanical properties of the graft copolymer was studied. Experimental result showed that the appropriate reaction time was 8 h at a reaction temperature of 30°C. Moreover, tensile strength and modulus of the graft copolymer increased with increasing %grafting. However, elongation at break of the graft copolymer decreased with increasing %grafting. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 122: 3152–3159, 2011     

The effects of constructed bivariate copulas on multivariate control charts effectiveness

The average control chart monitors the shifts in the process. The familiar multivariate control charts are used to detect the mean vector of the process such as multivariate cumulative sum (MCUSUM) and Hotelling's T² control charts. In this paper, the effects of constructing bivariate copulas on multivariate control charts, that is, MCUSUM and Hotelling's T² control charts are intensively investigated when observations are drawn from the exponential distribution. Moreover, the dependence levels of observations are classified to be weak, moderate, and strong in both positive and negative values by Kendall's tau. The numerical results were obtained by Monte Carlo simulation to explore the average run length (ARL). The simulation results show that the performance of Hotelling's T² control chart is superior to the MCUSUM control chart for all shifts in the mean vector of process. Furthermore, from applying the presented control chart to two sets of real data, data set of the strength of 1.5 cm glass fibers measured at the National Physical Laboratory, England and data set of the strength of glass of the aircraft window, it was found that for a small shift ($\delta \le 0.1$), the MCUSUM control chart is better than Hotelling's T² control chart.     

Compatibility between Drugs and Polymer in Nanoparticles Produced by the Miniemulsion-Solvent Evaporation Technique

Encapsulation of poorly soluble drugs in polymer nanoparticles is a common strategy to increase bioavailability of drugs. The miniemulsion-solvent evaporation technique is widely used for encapsulating drugs in polymer nanoparticles because it is a versatile process, allowing many drug–polymer pair combinations. However, above a critical concentration of drug, which depends on the drug and polymer, nanoparticles tend to precipitate. Herein, the importance of drug solubility and miscibility in the polymer phase for selecting the optimal polymer matrix is investigated. Ibuprofen, naproxen methyl ester, and naproxen, as models for poorly soluble drugs, are encapsulated with various loadings in polycaprolactone nanoparticles by the miniemulsion-solvent evaporation method. The miscibility between drug and polymer is estimated by calculating Flory–Huggins interaction parameters (χ) from differential scanning calorimetry measurements and calculating the difference in Hansen solubility parameter of drugs and polymer. Both values can be used for determining the feasibility of the drug encapsulation in polymer nanoparticles.     

Shear‐induced crystallization of injection molded vetiver grass‐polypropylene composites

Vetiver grass was used as an alternative filler in polypropylene (PP) composites in this study. Chemical treatment of vetiver grass by alkalization was carried out to obtain alkali‐treated vetiver grass. It was shown that alkali‐treated vetiver grass exhibited higher thermal stability than untreated vetiver grass. Injection molding was used to prepare the composites. The microstructure of injection molded samples showed a distinct skin layer due to shear‐induced crystallization. It was found that normalized thickness of shear‐induced crystallization layer of the composite was lower than that of neat PP. The effect of vetiver particle sizes on shear‐induced crystallization and physical properties of the composites were elucidated. Furthermore, the effect of processing conditions on shear‐induced crystallization, degree of crystallinity, gapwise crystallinity distribution, and mechanical properties of the composite were investigated. It was shown that injection speed and mold temperature affected the normalized thickness of shear‐induced crystallization layer and degree of crystallinity of the composites. However, processing conditions showed insignificant effect on the mechanical properties of vetiver fiber‐PP composites. The degree of crystallinity showed no distribution throughout the thickness direction of the composites. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Improvement of impact property of natural fiber–polypropylene composite by using natural rubber and EPDM rubber

In this research, vetiver grass was used as a filler in polypropylene (PP) composite. Chemical treatment was done to modify fiber surface. Natural rubber (NR) and Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) rubber at various contents were used as an impact modifier for the composites. The composites were prepared by using an injection molding. Rheological, morphological and mechanical properties of PP and PP composites with and without NR or EPDM were studied. Adding NR or EPDM to PP composites, a significant increase in the impact strength and elongation at break is observed in the PP composite with rubber content more than 20% by weight. However, the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the PP composites decrease with increasing rubber contents. Nevertheless, the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the composites with rubber contents up to 10% are still higher than those of PP. Moreover, comparisons between NR and EPDM rubber on the mechanical properties of the PP composites were elucidated. The PP composites with EPDM rubber show slightly higher tensile strength and impact strength than the PP composites with NR.     

Laboratory Evaluation of a Microfluidic Electrochemical Sensor for Aerosol Oxidative Load

Human exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution is associated with human morbidity and mortality. The mechanisms by which PM impacts human health are unresolved, but evidence suggests that PM intake leads to cellular oxidative stress through the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, reliable tools are needed for estimating the oxidant generating capacity, or oxidative load, of PM at high temporal resolution (minutes to hours). One of the most widely reported methods for assessing PM oxidative load is the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay. The traditional DTT assay utilizes filter-based PM collection in conjunction with chemical analysis to determine the oxidation rate of reduced DTT in solution with PM. However, the traditional DTT assay suffers from poor time resolution, loss of reactive species during sampling, and high limit of detection. Recently, a new DTT assay was developed that couples a particle-into-liquid-sampler with microfluidic-electrochemical detection. This “on-line” system allows high temporal resolution monitoring of PM reactivity with improved detection limits. This study reports on a laboratory comparison of the traditional and on-line DTT approaches. An urban dust sample was aerosolized in a laboratory test chamber at three atmospherically relevant concentrations. The on-line system gave a stronger correlation between DTT consumption rate and PM mass (R ² = 0.69) than the traditional method (R ² = 0.40) and increased precision at high temporal resolution, compared to the traditional method.

Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Effect of glycidyl methacrylate-grafted natural rubber on physical properties of polylactic acid and natural rubber blends

Natural rubber (NR) was melt blended with polylactic acid (PLA) at various ratios using an internal mixer. The impact strength and elongation at break of PLA/NR blend dramatically increased with increasing NR content up to 10% (w/w). Glycidyl methacrylate-grafted natural rubber (NR-g-GMA) was used as a compatibilizer for PLA/NR blend. The effects of content and %grafting of NR-g-GMA on mechanical properties of PLA/NR blend were studied. The experimental result showed that the addition of NR-g-GMA in PLA/NR blend significantly improved impact strength and elongation at break of PLA/NR blend when compared with that of neat PLA and PLA/NR blend without NR-g-GMA. The impact strength and elongation at break of PLA/NR blend increased with increasing NR-g-GMA content up to 1% (w/w). Moreover, with increasing % grafting of NR-g-GMA in PLA/NR blend up to 4.35, the impact strength and elongation at break of the blend increased. Morphological and thermal property of PLA, PLA/NR, and PLA/NR/NR-g-GMA were elucidated as well. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012