Sharif Digital Repository

Very fine alumina nanoparticles were loaded in novolac type phenolic resin (PF) using solution mixing method. The concentration of nanoalumina in PF was varied between 2.5 to 20 wt%. All the compounds were compression molded and then subjected to scanning electron microscopy (SEM), tensile, flexural, and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) tests. SEM analysis showed that the nanoalumina were dispersed uniformly at low concentrations, however, at high concentrations, dispersion was suppressed leading to agglomerates in the composites. Mechanical testing revealed that the nanoalumina had a great influence on the strength and stiffness of PF resin particularly at concentrations below 5 wt%.... 

X-ray diffraction and rheological measurements were used to characterize nanoparticle dispersion in LDPE/LLDPE/nanoclay hybrid nanocomposites. XRD patterns were interpreted with a novel distribution formula and rheological measurements were used to confirm the results. Results of these two methods indicated that increasing clay in all the prepared nanocomposites exhibited a significant improvement in filler-matrix interaction because of increasing the probability of polymer diffusion but further exfoliation need more compatibilizing situations. It seems that this mathematical method could be used for predicting the overall change in clay gallery d-spacing and the extent of... 

Brake friction materials filled with nanoalumina were produced by both conventional and solvent-assisted mixing methods. It was shown that nanoalumina loading led to the reduction of friction coefficient and improvement in mechanical, wear and thermal behaviors. Such behavior was attributed to the role of nanoalumina in producing stable friction layer and easy conduction path in matrix. It was postulated that nanoalumina is able to attach on the surface of microalumina facilitating the rolling of microalumina at interface. Solution-processed samples exhibited lower improvement in tribological and mechanical properties compared to the conventional mixing due to the limited interaction between... 

Both natural montmorilonite (CN) and organically modified montmorilonite (CB) improved significantly the mechanical performance of novolac phenolic resin (PF)/woven glass-fiber (GF) composites due to their nanodispersion and good interfacial interaction with the matrix. It was revealed that the incorporation of 2.5 wt% of the clays enhances the elastic modulus up to 38% for CN and 43% for CB. Aging of PF/GF composites at various aqueous solutions, i.e. water, brine and acidic environments, increased stiffness of the composite (∼100-250% increase in elastic modulus) due to possible secondary crosslinking caused by water molecules and hydroxyl groups of PF resin. However, aging led to the... 

Homogeneous and fairly monosized microspherical structures of polyaniline has been synthesized using a simple soft template method with β-naphthalene sulfonic acid (β-NSA) as both the surfactant and dopant, and ammonium persulfate (APS) as the oxidant at 2-5 C. The morphology of PANI-NSA was successfully controlled from nanotubes to microsphere, by changing the synthesis conditions (i.e. pH, the concentration of surfactant and monomer, and temperature). Some mechanistic aspects of the formation of nanotubes and hollow spheres have been discussed precisely based on SEM, TEM, DLS, FTIR and UV-visible results. Moreover, synthesis was performed under acidic environment to obtain further... 

Low structure carbon black (CBN330), conductive high structure carbon black (CBXE2B) and carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) were loaded into the blend of natural rubber (NR) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) at different contents up to 10 phr. Kraus plots showed that all the reinforcements interact with NR/SBR blend appropriately. However, the CBXE2B whose interfacial area is the highest showed greatest value of Kraus interaction parameter. Flory-Rhener model and effective torque value revealed that all of the reinforcements enhanced the crosslink density, among them CBXE2B showed the highest impact and MWCNT placed in the second rank. It was also shown that the cure kinetic... 

The network structure of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) in the presence of carbon black (CB) with two different structures and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was investigated. Swelling behaviour, tensile properties at various strain rates and cure kinetics were characterized. Experimental data were analysed using the Flory-Rehner model as well as the tube model theory. It is found that the network structure of CB-filled SBR follows a three-phase composite model including rigid particles, semi-rigid bound rubber and matrix rubber. This bound rubber is postulated to be critical for the mechanical and deformational properties, development of crosslinking density in matrix rubber and... 

Various composite friction materials containing 40. vol.% organic binder (phenolic resin plus styrene-butadiene-rubber (SBR)) with varying phenolic-resin/SBR ratio were prepared. The content of phenolic resin in each composite was indicated by the resin value (RV) index ranging between 0 and 100%. The composites with RVs greater than 50% form resin-based friction materials in which the primary binder is the phenolic resin. For RVs less than 50%, the composites become the rubber-based materials where the primary binder is the SBR. The analysis of mechanical properties exhibited that the conformability of the composites increases upon incorporation of SBR. The frictional analysis revealed that... 

The present work focused on the characterization of mechanical properties of novolac phenolic resin (PF) filled with two types of clays, including modified and unmodified ones, and multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT). It was found that the solution mixing method is able to disperse the nanoparticles within the PF resin appropriately. It was also shown that the unmodified clay (Closite Na+) has the highest influence on the mechanical properties possibly due to the good level of dispersion as well as the good interfacial interaction. Theoretical analysis based on the rubber elasticity theory showed that the nanoparticles influence the evolution of crosslinking density and network structure  

Industrial scale continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) for production and grade transitions of poly vinyl acetate (PVAc) at the different reactor sizes was investigated. Such reactor is known to show oscillatory behavior and to have periodic limit points, particularly at high molecular weights. Four efficient novel hybrid optimization methods which use variable population size genetic algorithm (VPGA), bacterial optimization algorithm (BO) and shuffled frog leaping method (SFL) were introduced for this kind of reactors. These algorithms can reliably find dynamically stable points with desired conditions for PVAc production. The dynamic modeling combined with the new hybrid optimization... 

Reinforcement of styrene-butadiene-rubber (SBR) was investigated using two different carbon blacks (CBs) with similar particle sizes, including highly structured CB and conventional CB, as well as multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) prepared by mechanical mixing. The attempts were made to examine reinforcing mechanism of these two different classes of carbon nanoparticles. Scanning electron microscopy and electrical conductivity measurement were used to investigate morphology. Tensile, cyclic tensile and stress relaxation analyses were performed. A modified Halpin-Tsai model based on the concept of an equivalent composite particle, consisting of rubber bound, occluded rubber and... 

Binary blends of recycled high-density polyethylene (R-HDPE) with poly(ethylene terephthalate) (R-PET) and recycled polystyrene (R-PS), as well as the ternary blends, i.e. R-HDPE/R-PET/R-PS, with varying amounts of the constituents were prepared by twin screw extruder. The mechanical, rheological, thermal, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were utilized to characterize the samples. The results revealed that both R-HDPE/R-PET and R-HDPE/R-PS blends show phase inversion but at different compositions. The R-PET was found to have much higher influence on the properties enhancement of the R-HDPE compared to R-PS, but at the phase inverted situation, a significant loss in the tensile... 

This article deals with the rubber-based friction materials (RBFMs) which can be used in brake system. The physico-mechanical and tribological properties of a series of fiber filled RBFMs containing steel wool and aramid pulp at different concentrations along with a fiber-free reference material were characterized. Rubber-glass transition induced at higher sliding velocities was identified based on the friction fade behavior of the RBFMs. The rubber-glass transition which is inherently originated by viscoelastic response of polymeric binder was found to be influential on the tribological properties of the RBFMs. It was revealed that steel wool increased coefficient of friction (COF) and... 

Thermally oxidized nanodiamond (OND), amine-functionalized ND (AND) and untreated ND (UND) were added to epoxy/TETA at 1 wt % loading. The ND enhanced the dynamic storage modulus of epoxy while decreasing the glass transition temperature because of the increment of free volume in the vicinity of the ND surfaces. The ND induced an acceleration effect on the curing reaction which could be due to functional groups of the ND and lack of any steric hindrance on molecules by the ND particles themselves. The Vyazovkin model-free isoconversional method indicated that all NDs decreased the activation energy; among them, AND showed the lowest value because of the significant promotion of the epoxide... 

Composites of phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resin with Closite Na+ and Closite 30B up to 20 wt% loadings were prepared by solution mixing. Tensile testing showed that both pristine and organically modified clays increased considerably the mechanical properties of PF resin at 2.5 wt% loading followed by marginal improvement or even sacrificed properties at high loadings. DMA and DSC analyses suggested development of a highly crosslinked and well adhered interphase around silicate layers. A novel three-phase model considering the interphase region was proposed to predict composite modulus. The model was successfully employed to correlate morphological characteristics and mechanical properties of... 

Effects of molecular weight and structure of polyamide 6 (PA6) on morphology and properties of PA6/MWCNT prepared by melt mixing were investigated. Microscopic analysis showed fine dispersion of MWCNT within low viscosity PA6s due to domination of melt infiltration into MWCNT agglomerate at low viscosity matrices with linear structure. Rheological data indicated good interfacial interaction with no percolation of MWCNT up to 2 wt% loading. DSC thermograms showed nucleating role of MWCNT on crystallization of PA6s with marginal effect on crystallinity. Experimental data supported with micromechanical model showed limited improvement on mechanical properties, but it was closely consistent with... 

The reinforcing effect of high structure carbon black (HSCB) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on natural rubber/styrene-butadiene rubber blend processed using mechanical mixing was comparatively investigated. In-depth analysis by dynamic mechanical analysis, the Eggers-Schummer model and Medalia's relationship showed that HSCB aggregates provided large internal pores leading to significant immobilized macromolecules in filled rubber. Additionally, a tubular immobilized rubber layer with a thickness of 8nm was estimated for the rubber/MWCNT system based on dynamic mechanical analysis data. The mechanical performance of the HSCB filled blend was higher than that of the MWCNT filled... 

A genetic programming technique was employed to develop empirical models for predicting specific wear rate and coefficient of friction on brake friction materials. The models consist of independent variables representing the volume fraction of the ingredients. The average absolute relative error for specific wear rate and coefficient of friction were found to be 1.93% and 1.92%, respectively. The models were also verified by the experimental data used for further control of the formulation. Utilizing Tornado plots, the models were found to be able to properly demonstrate the role of the ingredients on overall tribological performance of the brake friction materials. Moreover, a non-dominated... 

A soft template route is reported for the fabrication of polyaniline nanospheres via the oxidative polymerization of aniline in the presence of β-naphthalenesulfonic acid (β-NSA) as both surfactqant and dopant, and ammonium persulfate as oxidant at 2-5°C. Control over the morphology and size of the nanoparticles was achieved by changing the reaction medium via addition of an organic cosolvent (i.e. ethanol or ethylene glycol) and by controlling the concentrations of aniline and β-NSA and the molar ratio of β-NSA to aniline. By this means the size of the β-NSA-aniline micelles and the way that aniline monomer interacts with the micelles were controlled. In fact the lower dielectric constant...