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Polymers
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Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers
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Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Analysis and Characterization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 22295

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Laura Peponi

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Guest Editor
Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP), CSIC, C/Juan de la Cierva, 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: materials science; nanomaterials; polymer science; composites and nanocomposites; smart materials and stimuli-responsive polymers; shape memory and multi-responsive polymers; multifunctional polymers; biodegradable and biobased polymers; 3D printing; reuse and recycling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Daniel López

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Guest Editor
CSIC - Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Polímeros (ICTP), 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: polymer science; composites and nanocomposites; smart materials and stimuli-responsive polymers; polymer gels; multifunctional polymers; antimicrobial polymers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Marta Fernández-García

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Guest Editor
Institute of Polymer Science and Technology, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
Interests: polymer chemistry; synthesis and modification of polymers; antimicrobial polymers; active surfaces; material characterization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymeric materials play a very important role in our daily life. From their beginning as single-use materials, they have now become advanced “customized” systems of high technological interest. In fact, today, many applications of polymers require not only specific properties, such as mechanical and thermal, but also have to present intelligent multifunctional properties, such as shape memory or the ability to repair themselves between others, thus obtaining advanced polymer systems. Most polymeric systems with advanced properties must show very good mechanical properties, as thermomechanical cycles as well as mechanodynamic cycles are generally used in order to study their response. Moreover, in addition to experimental characterization, modeling and theoretical analysis of the mechanical and rheological response of polymers and nanocomposites are very important to understand and to preview the behavior of these materials. In the same line, the mechanical performance of biodegradable and reused polymers is a crucial point in order to predict their service life as well as their end-of-life.

Dr. Laura Peponi
Dr. Daniel López
Dr. Marta Fernández-García
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • polymers
  • nanocomposites
  • nanoparticles
  • mechanical properties
  • smart properties
  • shape memory
  • rheology
  • mechanodynamical properties
  • thermomechanical cycles

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 3804 KiB  
Article
Molecular Dynamics Investigation of the Thermo-Mechanical Properties of the Moisture Invaded and Cross-Linked Epoxy System
by Can Sheng, Gai Wu, Xiang Sun and Sheng Liu
Polymers 2022, 14(1), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14010103 - 28 Dec 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 1821
Abstract
In spite of a high market share of plastic IC packaging, there are still reliability issues, especially for the effects of moisture. The mechanism between moisture and epoxy polymer is still obscure. A multi-step cross-linking approach was used to mimic the cross-linking process [...] Read more.
In spite of a high market share of plastic IC packaging, there are still reliability issues, especially for the effects of moisture. The mechanism between moisture and epoxy polymer is still obscure. A multi-step cross-linking approach was used to mimic the cross-linking process between the DGEBA resin and JEFFAMINE®-D230 agent. Based on the molecular dynamics method, the thermo-mechanical properties and microstructure of epoxy polymer were analyzed. In this paper, the degree of cross-linking ranged from 0% to 85.4% and the moisture concentration ranged from 0 wt.% to 12 wt.%. The hydrogen bonds were investigated in the moisture invaded epoxy polymer. Although most of the hydrogen bonds were related to water molecules, the hydrogen bonds between the inside of epoxy polymer were reduced only a little as the concentration of moisture increased. The diffusion coefficient of the water molecules was found to increase with the increase of moisture concentration. When the moisture concentration was larger than 12 wt.% or smaller than 1.6 wt.%, the diffusion coefficient was less affected by the epoxy polymer. In addition, the free volume and the thermal conductivity of the epoxy polymer were considered. It was found that the moisture could increase the thermal conductivity from 0.24 to 0.31 W/m/K, identifying a coupling relationship between moisture and thermal properties. Finally, the mechanical properties of epoxy polymer were analyzed by uniaxial tensile simulation. The COMPASS and DREIDING force fields were used during the uniaxial tensile simulation. A better result was achieved from the DREIDING force field compared with the experiment. The degree of cross-linking was positively correlated with mechanical properties. For the system with the largest degree of cross-linking of 85.4%, the Young’s modulus was 2.134 ± 0.522 GPa and the yield strength was 0.081 ± 0.01 GPa. There were both plasticizing and anti-plasticizing effects when the water molecules entered the epoxy polymer. Both the Young’s moduli and yield strength varied in a large range from 1.38 to 2.344 GPa and from 0.062 to 0.128 GPa, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers)
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17 pages, 4700 KiB  
Article
A Combined Exponential-Power-Law Method for Interconversion between Viscoelastic Functions of Polymers and Polymer-Based Materials
by Vitor Dacol, Elsa Caetano and João R. Correia
Polymers 2020, 12(12), 3001; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12123001 - 16 Dec 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1815
Abstract
Understanding and modeling the viscoelastic behavior of polymers and polymer-based materials for a wide range of quasistatic and high strain rates is of great interest for applications in which they are subjected to mechanical loads over a long time of operation, such as [...] Read more.
Understanding and modeling the viscoelastic behavior of polymers and polymer-based materials for a wide range of quasistatic and high strain rates is of great interest for applications in which they are subjected to mechanical loads over a long time of operation, such as the self-weight or other static loads. The creep compliance and relaxation functions used in the characterization of the mechanical response of linear viscoelastic solids are traditionally determined by conducting two separate experiments—creep tests and relaxation tests. This paper first reviews the steps involved in conducting the interconversion between creep compliance and relaxation modulus in the time domain, illustrating that the relaxation modulus can be obtained from the creep compliance. This enables the determination of the relaxation modulus from the results of creep tests, which can be easily performed in pneumatic equipment or simple compression devices and are less costly than direct relaxation tests. Some existing methods of interconversion between the creep compliance and the relaxation modulus for linear viscoelastic materials are also presented. Then, a new approximate interconversion scheme is introduced using a convenient Laplace transform and an approximated Gamma function to convert the measured creep compliance to the relaxation modulus. To demonstrate the accuracy of the fittings obtained with the method proposed, as well as its ease of implementation and general applicability, different experimental data from the literature are used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers)
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10 pages, 1834 KiB  
Article
A Magneto-Hyperelastic Model for Silicone Rubber-Based Isotropic Magnetorheological Elastomer under Quasi-Static Compressive Loading
by Yanliang Qiao, Jiangtao Zhang, Mei Zhang, Lisheng Liu and Pengcheng Zhai
Polymers 2020, 12(11), 2435; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12112435 - 22 Oct 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2154
Abstract
A new magneto-hyperelastic model was developed to describe the quasi-static compression behavior of silicone rubber-based isotropic magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) in this work. The magnetization property of MRE was characterized by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and the quasi-static compression property under different magnetic [...] Read more.
A new magneto-hyperelastic model was developed to describe the quasi-static compression behavior of silicone rubber-based isotropic magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) in this work. The magnetization property of MRE was characterized by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and the quasi-static compression property under different magnetic fields was tested by using a universal testing machine equipped with a magnetic field accessory. Experimental results suggested that the stiffness of the isotropic MRE increased with the magnetic flux density within the tested range. Based on experimental results, a new magneto-hyperelastic model was established by coupling the Ogden hyperelastic model, the magnetization model and the magneto-induced modulus model based on a magnetic dipole theory. The results show that the proposed new model can accurately predict the quasi-static compression property of the isotropic MRE under the tested magnetic flux density and strain ranges using only three model parameters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers)
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18 pages, 3094 KiB  
Article
Mechanical and Antimicrobial Polyethylene Composites with CaO Nanoparticles
by Cristián Silva, Felipe Bobillier, Daniel Canales, Francesca Antonella Sepúlveda, Alejandro Cament, Nicolás Amigo, Lina M. Rivas, María T. Ulloa, Pablo Reyes, J. Andrés Ortiz, Tatiana Gómez, Carlos Loyo and Paula A. Zapata
Polymers 2020, 12(9), 2132; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12092132 - 18 Sep 2020
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 3614
Abstract
Low-density polyethylene composites containing different sizes of calcium oxide (CaO) nanoparticles were obtained by melt mixing. The CaO nanoparticles were synthesized by either the sol-gel or sonication methods, obtaining two different sizes: ca. 55 nm and 25 nm. These nanoparticles were used either [...] Read more.
Low-density polyethylene composites containing different sizes of calcium oxide (CaO) nanoparticles were obtained by melt mixing. The CaO nanoparticles were synthesized by either the sol-gel or sonication methods, obtaining two different sizes: ca. 55 nm and 25 nm. These nanoparticles were used either as-synthesized or were modified organically on the surface with oleic acid (Mod-CaO), at concentrations of 3, 5, and 10 wt% in the polymer. The Mod-CaO nanoparticles of 25 nm can act as nucleating agents, increasing the polymer’s crystallinity. The Young’s Modulus increased with the Mod-CaO nanoparticles, rendering higher reinforcement effects with an increase as high as 36%. The reduction in Escherichia coli bacteria in the nanocomposites increased with the amount of CaO nanoparticles, the size reduction, and the surface modification. The highest antimicrobial behavior was found in the composites with a Mod-CaO of 25 nm, presenting a reduction of 99.99%. This strong antimicrobial effect can be associated with the release of the Ca2+ from the composites, as studied for the composite with 10 wt% nanoparticles. The ion release was dependent on the size of the nanoparticles and their surface modification. These findings show that CaO nanoparticles are an excellent alternative as an antimicrobial filler in polymer nanocomposites to be applied for food packaging or medical devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers)
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15 pages, 3632 KiB  
Article
Influence of the Degree of Cure in the Bulk Properties of Graphite Nanoplatelets Nanocomposites Printed via Stereolithography
by Alberto S. De León and Sergio I. Molina
Polymers 2020, 12(5), 1103; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12051103 - 12 May 2020
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2926
Abstract
In this work, we report on the fabrication via stereolithography (SLA) of acrylic-based nanocomposites using graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) as an additive. GNPs are able to absorb UV–Vis radiation, thus blocking partial or totally the light path of the SLA laser. Based on this, [...] Read more.
In this work, we report on the fabrication via stereolithography (SLA) of acrylic-based nanocomposites using graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) as an additive. GNPs are able to absorb UV–Vis radiation, thus blocking partial or totally the light path of the SLA laser. Based on this, we identified a range of GNP concentrations below 2.5 wt %, where nanocomposites can be successfully printed. We show that, even though GNP is well-dispersed along the polymeric matrix, nanocomposites presented lower degrees of cure and therefore worse mechanical properties when compared with pristine resin. However, a post-processing at 60 °C with UV light for 1 h eliminates this difference in the degree of cure, reaching values above 90% in all cases. In these conditions, the tensile strength is enhanced for 0.5 wt % GNP nanocomposites, while the stiffness is increased for 0.5–1.0 wt % GNP nanocomposites. Finally, we also demonstrate that 2.5 wt % GNP nanocomposites possess characteristic properties of semiconductors, which allows them to be used as electrostatic dispersion materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers)
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13 pages, 2700 KiB  
Article
Poly(lactic Acid)–Biochar Biocomposites: Effect of Processing and Filler Content on Rheological, Thermal, and Mechanical Properties
by Rossella Arrigo, Mattia Bartoli and Giulio Malucelli
Polymers 2020, 12(4), 892; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12040892 - 12 Apr 2020
Cited by 74 | Viewed by 5014
Abstract
Biocomposites based on poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and biochar (BC) particles derived from spent ground coffee were prepared using two different processing routes, namely melt mixing and solvent casting. The formulated biocomposites were characterized through rheological, thermal, and mechanical analyses, aiming at evaluating the [...] Read more.
Biocomposites based on poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and biochar (BC) particles derived from spent ground coffee were prepared using two different processing routes, namely melt mixing and solvent casting. The formulated biocomposites were characterized through rheological, thermal, and mechanical analyses, aiming at evaluating the effects of the filler content and of the processing method on their final properties. The rheological characterization demonstrated the effectiveness of both exploited strategies in achieving a good level of filler dispersion within the matrix, notwithstanding the occurrence of a remarkable decrease of the PLA molar mass during the processing at high temperature. Nevertheless, significant alterations of the PLA rheological behavior were observed in the composites obtained by melt mixing. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements indicated a remarkable influence of the processing method on the thermal behavior of biocomposites. More specifically, melt mixing caused the appearance of two melting peaks, though the structure of the materials remained almost amorphous; conversely, a significant increase of the crystalline phase content was observed for solvent cast biocomposites containing low amounts of filler that acted as nucleating agents. Finally, thermogravimetric analyses suggested a catalytic effect of BC particles on the degradation of PLA; its biocomposites showed decreased thermal stability as compared with the neat PLA matrix. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers)
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Review

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42 pages, 8439 KiB  
Review
Shape-Memory Materials via Electrospinning: A Review
by Valentina Salaris, Adrián Leonés, Daniel Lopez, José Maria Kenny and Laura Peponi
Polymers 2022, 14(5), 995; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14050995 - 28 Feb 2022
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4056
Abstract
This review aims to point out the importance of the synergic effects of two relevant and appealing polymeric issues: electrospun fibers and shape-memory properties. The attention is focused specifically on the design and processing of electrospun polymeric fibers with shape-memory capabilities and their [...] Read more.
This review aims to point out the importance of the synergic effects of two relevant and appealing polymeric issues: electrospun fibers and shape-memory properties. The attention is focused specifically on the design and processing of electrospun polymeric fibers with shape-memory capabilities and their potential application fields. It is shown that this field needs to be explored more from both scientific and industrial points of view; however, very promising results have been obtained up to now in the biomedical field and also as sensors and actuators and in electronics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mechanical and Advanced Properties of Polymers)
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