Search results for "elastomer"

On the compatibilization of PET/HDPE blends through a new class of copolyesters

2000

Polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) and polyethylene are incompatible polymers and their blends show, in general, poor properties. Compatibilization is then a necessary step to obtain blends with good mechanical and barrier properties. In this work different compatibilizing agents were used, i.e. a maleic anhydride elastomer and some new products containing graft-copolymers having polyester segments grafted onto polyethylene backbone chains. Both the functionalized elastomer and the new products drastically improve the morphology and the ductility of the blend. In the case of the modified elastomer the compatibilizing action has been attributed to the formation of H-bonds whereas the copolymers…

Preparation of actuating fibres of oriented main-chain liquid crystalline elastomers by a wetspinning process

2011

We present a versatile method to prepare oriented fibres with a defined thickness from main-chain liquid crystalline elastomers. A microfluidic setup is utilized to inject a solution of a photocrosslinkable smectic A main-chain polymer into a co-flowing stream of silicone oil. Diffusion of the solvent into the oil yields solid polymer filaments that are crosslinked in a continuous way by UV-irradiation. The obtained fibres are highly oriented and show a reversible and significant contraction during the liquid crystal's phase transition.

Structure and elastic properties of smectic liquid crystalline elastomer films

2001

Mechanical measurements, x-ray investigations, and optical microscopy are employed to characterize the interplay of chemical composition, network topology, and elastic response of smectic liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) in various mesophases. Macroscopically ordered elastomer films of submicrometer thicknesses were prepared by cross linking freely suspended smectic polymer films. The cross-linked material preserves the mesomorphism and phase transitions of the precursor polymer. The elastic response of the smectic LCE is entropic, and the corresponding elastic moduli are of the order of MPa. In the tilted ferroelectric smectic-C* phase, the network structure plays an important role. Du…

1991

Thermoanalytical studies on an order-disorder transition resulting from supramolecular organization of hydrogen bond motifs in an unpolar (polymer-) matrix are reported. Functional groups having two potential sites for hydrogen bonding (4-carboxyphenylarazole) are located statistically along the polybutadiene backbone. Multistep hydrogen bond formation leads to the formation of association chains whose lengths can be controlled by addition of monofunctional groups (phenylurazole) like in conventional stepgrowth polymers. The association chain length is estimated from the variation of transition enthalpy and «melting» temperature

Cooperative structure formation by combination of covalent and association chain polymers: 4. Designing functional groups for supramolecular structur…

1991

Abstract A small number of polar functional groups are attached to polybutadiene by a polymer analogous reaction. Depending on their molecular structure, different degrees of supramolecular ordering result from the aggregation of these polar groups. In the case of phenylurazole units, which carry a single site for hydrogen-bond complexation, binary contacts are formed; whereas linear association chain structures are formed in the case of polybutadiene carrying phenylurazole units additionally substituted with a carboxy group in meta or para positions of the phenyl ring. In the latter case, association chains aggregate cooperatively to an ordered supramolecular structure. The different struc…

New Thermoshrinkable Materials of Radiation Modified Polypropylene-Elastomer Composites with Cross-Linking Agents

2014

In this work, electron beam modified heterogeneous composites of isotactic polypropylene (PP) with chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) have been investigated. The PP/CPE blend composites with an excess of elastomer (30/70 wt%) have been modified with trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA) and bisphenol-A-dimethacrylate (BPDMA) cross-linking agents and have been irradiated with accelerated electrons up to ionizing radiation doses from 25 to 150 kGy. The internal stresses characterizing the thermoshrinkage properties (TMP) thermorelaxation stresses formed in thermal heating and the residual stresses resulting in the process of full setting and cooling of materials have been investigated for radiat…

1986

Covalently crosslinked liquid crystalline networks with elastic properties were prepared in isotropic solution from linear liquid crystalline polymers. As linear precursors for the networks were used: (i) polymers with the mesogenic groups in the side groups (polyacrylates and polymethacrylates), (ii) polymers with the mesogenic groups in the main chain (polymalonates) and (iii) polymers with the mesogenic groups in main chain and side groups (“combined liquid crystalline polymers”). In all crosslinked polymers the liquid crystalline phases of the linear polymers are retained. For low degrees of crosslinking (≤2 mol-%) the phase transition temperatures remain nearly unchanged. These elastom…

1987

X-ray measurements of stretched crosslinked liquid-crystalline side group polymers show that two types of orientation of the mesogenic groups relative to the polymer chains (parallel or perpendicular) are possible, depending on the structure of the polymer chain. For two liquid-crystalline polymethacrylates with long spacer groups (6 methylene units) the mesogenic groups orient preferably perpendicularly to the polymer chains (axis of strain). For three liquid-crystalline polyacrylates with long or short spacer groups (6 or 2 methylene units), the mesogenic groups orient preferably parallel to the polymer chains (axis of strain). The reason for this difference is not yet clear. These result…

Polymers, Ferroelectric Liquid Crystalline Elastomers

2002

Ferroelectric materials are a subclass of pyro- and piezoelectric materials. They are very rarely found in crystalline organic or polymeric materials because ferroelectric hysteresis requires enough molecular mobility to reorient molecular dipoles in space. So semicrystalline polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is nearly the only known compound. On the contrary, ferroelectric behavior is very often observed in chiral liquid crystalline materials, both low molar mass and polymeric. Ferroelectric LC-elastomers represent an interesting class of material because they combine the ordering of liquid crystalline ferroelectric phases and the rubber elasticity of polymer networks. Switching of the electr…

Acrylic Graft Copolymers Via Macromonomers

1995

Comb-shaped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and PMMA grafted with poly(nbutyl acrylate) (PnBuA) were prepared by radical copolymerisation of ω-methacryloyl-PMMA with MMA and nBuA, respectively. The comb-shaped PMMA is characterised with respect to radius of gyration by using GPC equipped with a multi-angle laser light scattering detector. The radical copolymerisation of the macromonomer with nBuA in toluene follows complex kinetics. The dependence of the relative reactivity of the macromonomer on absolute concentration and on the ratio of comonomers may be explained by preferential solvation of comonomers by segments of their own kind (“bootstrap effect”) or even micelle formation. However…