Macromolecular Insights into the Altered Mechanical Deformation Mechanisms of Non-Polyolefin Contaminated Polyolefins

Current recycling technologies rarely achieve 100% pure plastic fractions from a single polymer type. Often, sorted bales marked as containing a single polymer type in fact contain small amounts of other polymers as contaminants. Inevitably, this will affect the properties of the recycled plastic. This work focuses on understanding the changes in tensile deformation mechanism and the related mechanical properties of the four dominant types of polyolefin (PO) (linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP)), contaminated with three different non-polyolefin (NPO) polymers (polyamide-6 (PA-6), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polystyrene (PS)). Under the locally elevated stress state induced by the NPO phase, the weak interfacial adhesion typically provokes decohesion. The resulting microvoids, in turn, initiate shear yielding of the PO matrix. LLDPE, due to the linear structure and intercrystalline links, is well able to maintain high ductility when contaminated. LDPE shows deformation similar to the pure material, but with decreasing ductility as the amount of NPO increases. Addition of 20 wt% PA-6, PET, and PS causes a drop in strain at break of 79%, 63%, and 84%, respectively. The typical ductile necking of the high-crystalline HDPE and PP is strongly disturbed by the NPO phase, with a transition even to full brittle failure at high NPO concentration.

Mechanical Properties and Deformation Mechanisms of Heterostructured High-Entropy and Medium-Entropy Alloys: A Review

Recently, heterostructured (HS) materials, consisting of hard and soft zones with dramatically different strengths, have been developed and received extensive attention because they have been reported to exhibit superior mechanical properties over those predicted by the rule of mixtures. Due to the accumulation of geometrically necessary dislocations during plastic deformation, a back stress is developed in the soft zones to increase the yield strength of HS materials, which also induce forward stress in the hard zones, and a global hetero-deformation induced (HDI) hardening to retain ductility. High-entropy alloys (HEAs) and medium-entropy alloys (MEAs) or multicomponent alloys usually contain three or more principal elements in near-equal atomic ratios and have been widely studied in the world. This review paper first introduces concepts of HS materials and HEAs/MEAs, respectively, and then reviewed emphatically the mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms of HS HEAs/MEAs. Finally, we discuss the prospect for industrial applications of the HS HEAs and MEAs.