Search results for "Plastics"

1989

Heat of crystallization significantly slows down polymer cooling and thus pressure drop increase during mould filling with thermoplastic crystalline polymers. If a correction of thermal diffusivity can account for such a cooling slow down at least as far as the effect on pressure drop is concerned, the use of nonisothermal crystallization kinetics may be avoided in the simulation of mould filling. A procedure to identify such a correction is outlined in this work. Pressure drop values during cavity filling calculated by using a corrected thermal diffusivity in the model proposed by Lord and Williams favourably compare with literature data taken with polypropylene and polyethylene resins. Be…

Impact of Branching on the Solution Behavior and Serum Stability of Starlike Block Copolymers.

2019

The size control of nanomedicines for tumor diagnosis and therapy is of high importance, since it enables or disables deep and sufficient tumor penetration. Amphiphilic star-shaped block copolypept(o)ides offer substantial promise to precisely adjust the hydrophobic core and the hydrophilic corona, independent of each other, and therefore simultaneously control the size dimension in the interesting size range from 10 to 30 nm. To gain access to core-shell structures of such sizes, 3-arm and 6-arm PeptoStars, based on poly(gamma-tert-butyloxycarbonyl-L-glutamate)-b-polysarcosine (pGlu(OtBu)-b-pSar), were prepared via controlled living ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of the corresponding N-…

Denaturation via Surfactants Changes Composition of Protein Corona

2018

The use of nanocarriers as drug delivery vehicles brings them into contact with blood plasma proteins. Polymeric nanocarriers require some sort of surfactant to ensure colloidal stability. Formation of the protein corona is therefore determined not only by the intrinsic properties of the nanocarrier itself but also by the accompanying surfactant. Although it is well-known that surfactants have an impact on protein structure, only few studies were conducted on the specific effect of surfactants on the composition of protein corona of nanocarriers. Therefore, we analyzed the composition of the protein corona on "stealth" nanoparticles with additional surfactant (cetyltrimethylammonium chlorid…

A Deep Insight into Different Acidic Additives as Doping Agents for Enhancing Proton Conductivity on Polybenzimidazole Membranes

2020

[EN] The use of phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes for fuel cell applications has been extensively studied in the past decades. In this article, we present a systematic study of the physicochemical properties and proton conductivity of PBI membranes doped with the commonly used phosphoric acid at different concentrations (0.1, 1, and 14 M), and with other alternative acids such as phytic acid (0.075 M) and phosphotungstic acid (HPW, 0.1 M). The use of these three acids was reflected in the formation of channels in the polymeric network as observed by cross-section SEM images. The acid doping enhanced proton conductivity of PBI membranes and, after doping, these conducti…

Does brick size matter? Albert G. Keller on another QWERTY story

2023

In his seminal ‘‘Clio and the Economics of Qwerty’’, Paul David indicates Thorstein Veblen’s famous discussion of the British system of coal rail haulage as an intellectual antecedent to the idea of lock in. This note documents how Albert G. Keller, a Yale sociologist contemporary of Veblen, had presented a similar argument in connection to the establishment of a brick tax in England and its effects on the size of bricks. Like Veblen, Keller used this illustration to emphasize the inertia exercised by certain institutional conditions.

Comparison of quantitative analysis techniques for the determination of heat seal lacquer layers on aluminum blister foils

2010

For decades a gravimetric method has been common standard for the determination of heat seal lacquers on aluminum blister foils. With the availability of appropriate techniques such as interferometric, infrared reflection absorption spectroscopic (IRRAS), beta backscatter, impedance spectroscopic and eddy current techniques respectively, more efficient determinations can be foreseen which are subject of the present communication. The different methods were compared to each other regarding parameters required for validation of analytical procedures according to the ICH guidelines Q2 (R1) such as linearity, precision, accuracy, robustness and quantitation limits. The interferometric, IRRAS an…

Monte Carlo simulation of a lattice model for ternary polymer mixtures

1988

Monte Carlo studies of symmetrical polymer mixturesAB, modelled by selfavoiding walks withNA=NB=N steps on a simple cubic lattice, are presented for arbitrary concentrations of vacanciesφv in the range fromφv=0.2 toφv=0.8 and chain lengthsN≤64. We obtained the phase diagrams and the equation of state for three choices of the ratio ∈ / ∈AB (∈ being the energy between monomers of the same kind, ∈AB being the energy between different monomers). Flory-Huggins theory provides only a qualitative understanding of these results. If the equation of state is “fitted” with an effective Flory-Huggins parameterχeff, the latter turns out to be strongly dependent on both concentration and temperature.

Towards the Quantitative Prediction of the Phase Behavior of Polymer Solutions by Computer Simulation

2009

The phase diagram of polymer solutions (cf. e.g. alkanes dissolved in supercritical carbon dioxide) is complicated, since there are four control parameters (temperature, pressure, monomer volume fraction, chain length of the polymer) and due to the interplay of liquid-vapor transitions and fluid-fluid unmixing. As a result I very intricate phase diagram topologies can result. An attempt to develop coarse-1 grained models that can deal with this task will be described. As usual, the polymers I will be modelled as off-lattice bead-spring chains, where several chemical monomers I are integrated into one effective bond, torsional degrees of freedom being dis-I regarded. But also a coarse-graine…

Polymer brushes on flat and curved surfaces: How computer simulations can help to test theories and to interpret experiments

2012

Theoretical descriptions of static properties of polymer brushes are reviewed, with an emphasis on monodisperse macromolecules grafted to planar, cylindrical, or spherical substrates. Blob concepts and resulting scaling relations are outlined, and various versions of the self-consistent field theory are summarized: the classical approximation and the strong stretching limit, as well as the lattice formulation. The physical justification of various inherent assumptions is discussed, and computer simulation results addressing the test of the validity of these approximations are reviewed. Also, alternative theories, such as the single chain mean field theory and the density functional theory, …

Stretching of Free Chains Confined in Concave Brush-Coated Nanocylinders

2012

The structure of a free flexible macromolecule confined in a cylindrical nanopore whose wall is coated by a polymer brush is studied by Monte Carlo simulation, varying the grafting density as well as the radius of the cylindrical pore. Because of this confinement, the free chain is stretched in axial direction; while for small grafting densities of the brush the end-to-end distance increases monotonously with decreasing pore radius, a nonmonotonic variation occurs for larger grafting densities. We show that this effect is due to strong interpenetration of the free chain and the brush chains; for very narrow pores a strong layering of cylindrical shells is found, and comparison with self-con…