This is an editorial article. It has no abstract.

Poly(phenylene isophtalamide) (PA) was modified by fullerene C₆₀ using solid-phase method. Novel ultrafiltration membranes based on nanocomposites containing up to 10 wt% of fullerene and carbon black were prepared. Properties of PA/C₆₀ composites in solutions were studied by light scattering and rheological methods. The relationship between characteristics of casting solutions and properties of nanocomposite membranes was studied. Scanning electron microscopy was used for structural characterization of the membranes. It was found that increase in fullerene content in nanocomposite enhances the membrane rigidity. All nanocomposite membranes were tested in dynamic (ultrafiltration) and static sorption experiments using a solution of protein mixture, with the purpose of studying protein sorption. The membranes modified by fullerene demonstrate the best values of flux reduced recovery after contact with protein solution. It was found that addition of fullerene C₆₀ to the polymer improves technological parameters of the obtained composite membranes.

The influence of the ionic character of a specific drug on its release rate from a hydrogel based on 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) and acrylamide (AAm) is analyzed. The hydrogel was synthesized by photopolymerization employing visible light, safranine O (Saf), as sensitizer, and a silsesquioxane functionalized with amine and methacrylate groups (SFMA), as co-initiator and crosslinker. Safranine O (Saf) was employed as a model of a cationic drug and the anionic form of resorufin (Rf) as a model of an anionic drug. Saf exhibited a larger affinity with functional groups of the hydrogel than that of Rf. This produced a lower loading and a faster release rate of Rf with respect to Saf. Besides, the release rate of Rf followed a Fickian behavior, while that of Saf exhibited a non-Fickian behavior. By hydrolyzing the hydrogel at pH = 13, amide groups supplied by AAm were irreversibly converted into carboxylic acid groups. Higher loadings and slower release rates of Saf from the hydrolyzed hydrogels were observed, making them particularly suitable for the slow drug-delivery of cationic drugs.

Mechanical failure of monodisperse Ni/Au coated acrylic particles has been investigated by individual compression tests using nanoindentation-based technique equipped with a flat diamond punch. We have found that both fracture property and morphology of particles depend on the compression loading rate. The breaking strain of the metal coating decreases with increasing loading rate, while the breaking stress increases. Two obvious fracture patterns with cracking in meridian or latitude direction are identified according to the loading rate, and attributed respectively to tension- or bendingdominated deformation of the coating. The findings reported here give a significant guiding to the manufacture design of metal coated polymer particles for Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive (ACA) packaging.

The high-resolution solid-state ¹³C NMR spectra were recorded for metallocene (m) and Ziegler-Natta (ZN) isotactic polypropylenes (iPP) in pelletized form using cross polarization (CP) and magic angle spinning (MAS) techniques within the temperature range of 20–160°C. Besides the CP MAS experiments also the MAS ¹³C NMR spectra (without CP), MAS ¹H NMR spectra and rotating frame spin-lattice relaxation times T_1ρ (¹³C) were measured at elevated temperatures. With the rise of temperature the splitting of CH₂, CH and CH₃ signals into two components was detected in ¹³C NMR spectra and assigned to amorphous and crystalline phases. The temperature dependences of chemical shifts and integral intensities obtained from the deconvoluted spectra provided information on the main chain and CH₃ groups motions in amorphous and crystalline regions of studied samples. While T_1ρ (¹³C) values show that the rate of segmental motion in amorphous regions in m-iPP and ZN-iPP is virtually the same, larger linewidths in ¹³C and ¹H NMR spectra indicate somewhat larger restraints of the motion in amorphous regions of ZN-iPP.

The influence of multiwall carbon nanotube (MWNTs) contents on electrical and mechanical properties of MWNTs-reinforced natural rubber (NR) composites is studied. The volume resistivity of the composites decreases with increasing the MWNTs content and the electrical percolation threshold is reached at less than 1 phr of MWNTs (phr = parts of filler by weight per hundred parts of rubber). This is caused by the formation of conductive chains in the composites. Electrical measurements under uniaxial deformation of a composite carried out at a filler loading above the percolation threshold, indicate a gradual disconnection of the conducting network with the bulk deformation. The drop in the storage modulus G' with the shear strain amplitude (Payne effect) is also attributed to a breakdown of the filler network. Considerable improvement in the stiffness is obtained upon incorporation of MWNTs in the polymer matrix but the main factor for reinforcement of NR by MWNTs appears to be their high aspect ratio rather than strong interfacial interaction with rubber. The tensile strength and the elongation at break of the composites are reduced with regard to the unfilled sample. This is probably due to the presence of some agglomerates that increase with the nanotube content. This hypothesis is confirmed by a cyclic loading of the composites where it is seen that the deformation at break occurs at a much higher level of strain in the second stretch than in the first one. The overall significant property improvements are the result of a better nanotube dispersion attributed to the combined use of tip sonication and cyclohexane as dispersion aids during composite processing.

Polypropylene (PP) was reinforced with wood flour and impact modified with elastomers to increase stiffness and impact resistance simultaneously. Elastomer content changed in four (0, 5, 10 and 20 wt%), while that of wood content in seven steps, the latter from 0 to 60 wt% in 10 wt% steps. Structure and adhesion were controlled by the addition of functionalized (maleated) polymers. Composites were homogenized in a twin-screw extruder and then injection molded to tensile bars. Fracture resistance was characterized by standard and instrumented impact tests. The results showed that the components are dispersed independently of each other even when a functionalized elastomer is used for impact modification, at least under the conditions of this study. Impact resistance does not change much as a function of wood content in PP/wood composites, but decreases drastically from the very high level of the PP/elastomer blend to almost the same value obtained without impact modifier in the three-component materials. Increasing stiffness and fiber related local deformation processes led to small fracture toughness at large wood content. Micromechanical deformation processes depend mainly on the strength of PP/wood interaction; debonding and pull-out take place at poor adhesion, while fiber fracture dominates when adhesion is strong. Composites with sufficiently large impact resistance cannot be prepared in the usual range of wood contents (50–60 wt%).

The effect of injection molding parameters (screw rotational speed, back pressure, injec-tion flow rate and holding pressure) on the nanofiller dispersion of melt-mixed PP/clay nanocomposites was investigated. The nanocomposites containing 4 wt% clay were obtained by dilution of a PP/clay masterbatch into a PP matrix. The evaluation of the dispersion degree was obtained from dynamic rheological measurements. The storage modulus and complex viscosity exhibit significant dependence on the injection molding parameters. PP/clay nanocomposite molded using more severe injection parameters (high shear and long residence time) displays the highest storage modulus and complex viscosity, which illustrates the improved dispersion of clay platelets. This better dispersion leads to better mechanical properties particularly higher Young modulus, tensile strength and unnotched impact strength. A Taguchi analysis was used to identify the influence of individual process parameters. The major individual parameter is the injection flow rate, whose increase improves nanoclay dispersion. The combination of high back pressure and high screw rotational speed is also necessary to optimize the dispersion of clay nanoplatelets.

Mechanical material testing combined with optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows for the first time the immediate detection of inner structural changes along with a qualitative observation of the local strain distribution in surface near bulk regions of semitransparent and translucent specimens. In addition to a 3D full field strain analysis (FFSA) system based on digital image correlation (DIC), a customized spectral domain OCT system operating at 1550 nm was applied for investigation. Exemplified by tensile testing of elastomer particle filled polypropylene specimens, local dissimilarity evaluation of the OCT images was performed. The results show the high potential of OCT to provide complementary information to DIC-based FFSA, like to identify processes influencing the remaining life of advanced commodity plastics such as the start and progress of yielding, identification of the yielding point, localization of the necking front and the development of small scale voids as in the case of matrix crazing.