• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.147-156
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• 2006

To investigate the influence of the foaming temperature and carbon black content on the cure behaviors and foaming characteristics of the foams. natural rubber (NR) was foamed at five temperature zones (145, 150, 155, 160 and $165^{\circ}C$) and different feeding ratios of the carbon black. A decreasing trend of the scorch time, $t_{s2}$ and cure time, $t_{90}$ was observed upon increasing foaming temperature and carbon black content. The optimal temperature for vulcanization and foaming of NRs in this study was considered to be $165^{\circ}C$ where density of the loomed NRs is lower than those at other four temperature regions. The rule rate index of the NRs foamed at $145^{\circ}C$ is smaller than those at 150, 155, 160 and $165^{\circ}C$. The results of the expansion ratio and micrographs of the foamed NRs were founded to support the density characteristics. The thickness of each of the struts formed inside the rubber matrix decreases with increasing the foaming temperature, while it increases with increasing the carbon black content.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.182-193
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• 2006

The retardation effects of a new polymeric UV stabilizer, DGEBA-HALS, on the UV degradation of SBR and NR were investigated in this study. The UV degradation behaviors of three different rubber compounds, without any photostabilizer and with commercial Cyabsorb UV-3529 and DGEBA-HALS, were compared. Also, the physical characteristics such as Young's modulus, tensile strength, blow-off deformation and crosslink density were examined. The Young's modulus was increased by UV irradiation for all samples, and the tensile strength, after UV irradiation, of the compound with UV stabilizer was better than that of the compound without stabilizer. Especially, the tensile strength of UV irradiated NR was improved by adding DGEBA-HALS. The results of blow-off deformation were in accord with those of Young's modulus. The degree of transmission of SBR compounds obtained from UV-vis transmission spectra was improved about 4% by adding the UV stabilizer. Commercial Cyabsorb UJV-3529 and DGEBA-HALS showed similar trends of transmission. The SEM photographs of SBR surface showed that the size of cracks created by UV irradiation became smaller by adding UV stabilizer. In particular, it is observed that the stabilization effect of DGEBA-HALS was better than that of commercial Cyabsorb UV-3529.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.194-204
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• 2006

The effects of the particle size and the structure of carbon blacks on the friction and the wear behavior of filled natural rubber were investigated in this study. The particle size and the structure of carbon black had a significant effect on the wear rates and the worn surface pattern, and the effect of them on abrasion resistance should be considered for the optimum design of desired wear properties. Ten carbon blacks with various sizes and structures are mixed with natural rubber in order to investigate the effects on the wear rate ($W_R$). The friction and the wear behavior were examined by self-made blade type friction-wear abrader, and the ,elation with characteristic parameter (${\psi}=\sqrt{{N_2^2}+{DBP^2}}$), obtained from the particle size and the structure, was studied. The wear rate ($W_R$) had a Power Law relation with the frictional work ($W_f$) and it was inversely proportional to the characteristic parameter of carbon black. It means that smaller particle size and better structure development of carbon black resulted in improved abrasion resistance.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.20-31
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• 2007

Material characteristics and lifetime evaluation are very important in design procedure to assure the safety and reliability of the rubber components. In this paper, the NBR compound was prepared by sulfur-cure system, and was used in predicting the lifetime of rubber gasket made by the compound. The accelerated material aging was investigated at different temperatures at 120, 140 and $160^{\circ}C$ and aging time from 3 hours to 600 hours at 5, 6, 7 vol %. of $H_2SO_4$ concentrations The rubber strips were placed in acid solution using pyrex g1ass tube. Both ends of pyrex g1ass tube were sealed to avoid evaporation of solution during heating at given time. The material test and accelerated acid-heat aging test were carried out to predict the useful life of NBR rubber gasket for a fuel cell stack. In order to investigate the effects of acid-heat aging on the properties of the NBR, tensile strength, elongation at break, hardness and crosslink-density were measured. The tensile strength decreases as the $H_2SO_4$ concentrations and temperature increase. Results were evaluated using Arrhenius equation.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.355-363
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• 2012

A series of poly(hydroxyamide)s (PHAs) having trifluoromethyl group were prepared by direct polycondensation of aromatic diimide-dicarboxylic acids with 2,2-bis(3-amino-4-hydroxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane by thionyl chloride and triethyl amine in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP). The PHAs exhibited inherent viscosity in the range of 0.54-0.96 dL/g at $35^{\circ}C$ in DMAc solution. All PHAs were readily soluble in a variety of organic solvents, whereas the polybenzoxazoles (PBOs) were quite insoluble except partially soluble in sulfuric acid. PHAs were converted to PBOs by thermal cycling reaction with heat of endotherm. The maximum weight loss temperature of the PHAs occurred in the range of $559-567^{\circ}C$. The PBOs showed relatively high char yields in the range of 47-59%. Pyrolysis Combustion Flow Calorimeter (PCFC) results of the PBOs showed 12-19 W/g heat release rate (HRR), and 2.7-3.6 kJ/g total heat release (total HR). The HRR of PBO 1 showed the lowest value of 12 W/g, which was 37% lower than that of PBO 3 (19 W/g).

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.336-340
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• 2012

Residual stress in the injection molded part is originated from thermal shrinkage and shear stress during injection molding process. There are many measurement methods of residual stress in the plastic part. Residual stress in opaque products can be measured by chemical cracking test. This method enables the solvent and specimen to react and to cause cracks. Cracks developed according to the level of residual stress. Thus the stresses in plastic part can be quantitatively measured by counting the number of cracks or measuring the size of cracks. Relationship between stress and number of cracks in a plastic specimen has been investigated in this study. Bergen jig was used to give a strain in the specimens those were molded using PC/PBT and PC/ABS. Solvent for the chemical cracking test was prepared using tetrahydrofuran and methyl alcol with the ratio of 1 to 3. Stresses in the specimen can be calculated by strains those were imposed by Bergen jig. Cracks were developed for stress higher than certain level. The number of cracks increased by second order function for stress.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.297-309
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• 2012

Different amounts of foaming agents were employed in natural rubber(NR)/butadiene rubber(BR) blends to understand the foaming behavior in presence of nano-reinforcing agent, zinc methacrylate (ZMA). The ZMA greatly improved most of the mechanical properties of the rubber foams, however it did not show considerable effect on the cell morphology, such as cell size, density and porosity. It was also observed that the foaming agent concentration affected all the mechanical parameters. When the content of foaming agent was increased, the number of foams was increased leading to a decrease in density of the compounds. But the size and distribution of foams remained unchanged with increased foaming agent. The effect of high styrene-butadiene rubber (HSBR) was also studied. The size of cells became smaller and the cell uniformity was improved with increasing HSBR. The foam rubber compounds showed much efficient energy absorbing capability at higher strains.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2010

Cellulose nanowhiskers (CNW) gamered increasing interest for their remarkable reinforcement of polymer composites. In this work, we were to produce cellulose whiskers from commercially available microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) by acid hydrolysis with sulfuric and hydrochloric acids. Electron microscopy found that each acid produced sililar cellulose crystals of diameters ranging from 20 to 30 nm and lengths ranging from 200 to 300 nm. Moreover, all samples showed remarkable flow birefringence through crossed polarization filters. Conductometric titration of CNW suspensions revealed that the sulfuric acid treated sample had a surface charge of between 140.00 mmol/kg and 197.78 mmol/kg due to sulfate groups, while that of the hydrochloric acid treated sample was undetectable. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the thermal decomposition temperature and apparent activation energy (evaluated by Broido's method at different stages of thermal decomposition.) of H1-CNW - prepared by hydrolysis with hydrochloric acid - was higher than those of S1-CNW and S2-CNW - prepared by hydrolyzing MCC with sulfuric acid.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.371-377
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• 2007

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of microbial polyesters that can be produced by fermentation from renewable resources. PHAs can be used as completely biodegradable plastics or elastomers. In this paper, novel applications of PHAs in biosensor are described. A general platform technology was developed by using the substrate binding domain (SBD) of PHA depolymerase as a fusion partner to immobilize proteins of interest on PHA surface. It could be shown that the proteins fused to the SBD of PHA depolymerase could be specifically immobilized onto PHA film, PHA microbead, and microcontact printed PHA surface. We review the results obtained for monitoring the specific interaction between the SBO and PHA by using enhanced green fluorescent protein, red fluorescent protein, single chain antibody against hepatitis B virus preS2 surface protein and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus surface antigen as model proteins. Thus, this system can be efficiently used for studying protein-protein and possibly protein-biomolecule interactions for various biotechnological applications.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.260-267
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• 2006

SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber; 25 wt% of solid contents) nanocomposites reinforced with OLS(organically modified layered silicates) were manufactured via the latex method. Two types of OLS are prepared, i.e. dodecylamine (primary amine) modified montmorillonite (DA-MMT) and N, N-dimethyldodecylamine (tertiary amino) modified MMT (DDA-MMT). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed to characterize the layer distance of OLS and the morphology of the nanocomposites. SBR nanocomposites reinforced with ternary phase filler (carbon black/silica/OLS) systems also manufactured. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) was performed on these composites to determine the loss factor (tan $\delta$) over a range of temperature($-20^{\circ}C{\sim}80^{\circ}C$). The results showed that there was significant changes on the values or tan $\delta$ with the addition of small amount of the OLS. By increasing the contents of OLS, the values of tan $\delta$ at $0^{\circ}C$ increased but those of tan $\delta$ at $60^{\circ}C$ decreased with increasing OLS contents.