Scalable Production of Crosslinked Rubber Nanofibre Networks as Highly Efficient Toughening Agent for Isotactic Polypropylene: Toughening Mechanism of Non-traditional Anisotropic Rubber Inclusion

Abstract Our preliminary investigations indicate that recycled rubber crumb may be used as a toughening agent for brittle thermoplastic such as polystyrene. The toughness of the resultant materials was found to increase with increasing rubber-to-matrix adhesion and decreasing particle size. Although crazing is expected to play some role in the toughening mechanism, the absence of a yield point and the type of fracture morphology indicate it is only a minor factor It is suggested that the main contribution is from a crack bridging mechanism. The increased energy to break results from the rupture of the rubber particles. Further studies in which crumb with known tear strength and tensile properties is used as a filler are currently being carried out. It is hoped that this will lead to a clearer understanding of the toughening mechanism.

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Matrix-polymer-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes as a highly efficient toughening agent for matrix polymers

Journal of Polymer Science Part B Polymer Physics ◽

10.1002/polb.23112 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 50 (16) ◽

pp. 1151-1155 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Chia-Ming Chang ◽

Keh-Ying Hsu ◽

Ying-Ling Liu

Keyword(s):

Carbon Nanotubes ◽

Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes ◽

Multiwalled Carbon ◽

Matrix Polymer ◽

Highly Efficient ◽

Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes ◽

Toughening Agent

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Phase separation in sol gel-derived ceramic films of silica-zirconia, alumina-zirconia, and titania-zirconia system

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100170967 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 52 ◽

pp. 646-647

Author(s):

J. Tong ◽

L. Eyring

Keyword(s):

Fracture Toughness ◽

Phase Separation ◽

Sol Gel ◽

Great Influence ◽

High Strength ◽

Chemical Durability ◽

Separation Method ◽

Toughening Mechanism ◽

Ceramic Films ◽

Zirconia Toughened Alumina

There is increasing interest in composites containing zirconia because of their high strength, fracture toughness, and its great influence on the chemical durability in glass. For the zirconia-silica system, monolithic glasses, fibers and coatings have been obtained. There is currently a great interest in designing zirconia-toughened alumina including exploration of the processing methods and the toughening mechanism.The possibility of forming nanocrystal composites by a phase separation method has been investigated in three systems: zirconia-alumina, zirconia-silica and zirconia-titania using HREM. The morphological observations initially suggest that the formation of nanocrystal composites by a phase separation method is possible in the zirconia-alumina and zirconia-silica systems, but impossible in the zirconia-titania system. The separation-produced grain size in silica-zirconia system is around 5 nm and is more uniform than that in the alumina-zirconia system in which the sizes of the small polyhedron grains are around 10 nm. In the titania-zirconia system, there is no obvious separation as was observed in die alumina-zirconia and silica-zirconia system.

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