• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 2015

This work focused on the study of thermal properties and kinetic behavior of LDPE-nanoclay composite films. The effect of nanoclay content (0.5, 1, 3, and 5 wt%) on thermal stability and crystallization characteristics of the nanocomposites were investigated by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The results from endothermic curve showed that the nanoclay played an important role in the crystallization of nanocomposites by acting as nucleating agent. From exothermic curve, there was a crystallization temperature shift which was attributed to crystallization process induced by nanoclay. The TGA results showed that the addition of nanoclay significantly increased the thermal stability of LDPE matrix, which was likely due to the characteristic of layered silicates/clays dispersed in LDPE matrix as well as the formation of multilayered carbonaceous-silicate char. A well-known Coats-Redfern method was used to evaluate the decomposition activation energy of nanocomposite. It was demonstrated that introducing of nanoclay to LDPE matrix escalated the activation energy of nanocomposite decomposition resulting in thermal stability improvement.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.472-485
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• 2019

When wood plastic composites (WPCs) have been used for a certain period of time, they become waste materials and should be recycled to reduce their environmental impact. Waste WPCs can be transformed into reinforced composites, in which fillers are used to improve their performance. In this study, recycled WPCs were prepared using different proportions of waste WPCs, nanoclay, and glass fiber. The effects of nanoclay and glass fiber on the microstructural, mechanical, thermal, and water absorption properties of the recycled WPCs were investigated. X-ray diffraction showed that the nanoclay intercalates in the WPCs. Additionally, scanning electron micrographs revealed that the glass fiber is adequately dispersed. According to the analysis of mechanical properties, the simultaneous incorporation of nanoclay and glass fiber improved both tensile and flexural strengths. However, as the amount of fillers increases, their dispersion becomes limited and the tensile and flexural modulus were not further improved. The synergistic effect of nanoclay and glass fiber in recycled WPCs enhanced the thermal stability and crystallinity ($X_c$). Also, the presence of nanoclay improved the water absorption properties. The results suggested that recycled WPCs reinforced with nanoclay and glass fiber improved the deteriorated performance, showing the potential of recycled waste WPCs.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.77-84
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• 2014

Biodegradable nanocomposites were fabricated with poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and Nanomer$^{(R)}$ I.44P using ultrasonication (US). Processing conditions were optimized to obtain the maximum tensile properties of the nanocomposites. Poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) was used as a plasticizer to avoid the brittleness of nanocompsoties. In order to disperse nanoclay into the PLA matrix, PEG and Nanomer$^{(R)}$ I.44P were firstly mixed and dispersed in the chloroform and followed by ultrasonication for 1 min With 10% PEG 400, tensile stress and Young's modulus of the nanocomposites decreased from 53.5 MPa and 2225 MPa to 37.0 MPa and 1757 MPa, respectively, while the elongation was increased from 4% to 21%. Tensile stress, Young's modulus, and elongation of nanocomposites were also increased with nanoclay concentration up to 2% (w/w) and were decreased with further increase in the nanoclay concentration. Transmittance of nanocomposites were significantly decreased from 62.5% for pure PLA film to 7.8% for 5% nanoclay containing nanocomposites. Water vapor permeability of the nanocomposites was also significantly decreased with nanoclay concentration and the minimum WVP of $3.5{\times}10^{-11}g{\cdot}m/m^2{\cdot}s{\cdot}Pa$ was obtained with 5% (w/w) nanoclay concentration. The PLA/Nanomer$^{(R)}$ I.44P nanocomposites showed a great potential as a environmental friendly food packaging material.

• Fibers and Polymers
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2004

The development of high tenacity, high modulus monofilaments from Polypropylene/Clay nanocomposite has been investigated. Pure sodium montmorillonite nanoclay was modified using hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (HTAB) via an ion exchange reaction. Pure and modified clay were characterized through X-ray diffraction, FTIR and TGA. The modified clay was melt blended with polypropylene (PP) in presence of a swelling agent. Composite filaments from PP/Clay nanocomposite were prepared at different weight percentages of nanoclay and the spinning and drawing conditions were optimized. The filaments were characterized for their mechanical, morphological and thermal properties. The composite PP filaments with modified clay showed improved tensile strength, modulus and reduced elongation at break. The composite filaments with unmodified clay did not show any improvement in tensile strength but the modulus improved. The sharp and narrow X-ray diffraction peaks of PP/nanoclay composite filaments indicate increase in crystallinity in presence of modified clay at small loadings (0.5 %). The improved thermal stability was observed in filaments with modified as well as unmodified clays.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.573-578
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• 2012

In general, most physical properties of wood/polyvinyl chloride (PVC) composites are lower than those of corresponding neat PVC resin because of poor interfacial adhesion between the hydrophilic wood flour and hydrophobic PVC. Therefore, in this study, we treated wood flour with three aminosilanes to improve wood/PVC interfacial adhesion strength, and eco-friendly wood/PVC/nanoclay composites were prepared by melt blending the aminosilane-treated wood flour, a heavy metal free PVC compound, and a type of nanoclay. The effects of treating wood flour with the aminosilanes and adding the nanoclay on the mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. Mechanical properties of the composites were investigated by universal testing machine (UTM), izod impact tester, dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA), and thermomechanical analyzer (TMA). The tensile properties of the composites with the aminosilane-treated wood flour were considerably higher than those of the composites with neat wood flour. Furthermore, a small amount of the nanoclay improved mechanical properties of the composites. The performance of the wood/PVC composites was considerably improved by using the aminosilane-treated wood flour and the nanoclay.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.235-240
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• 2014

Nanocomposites made of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and organo-modified montmorillonite (O-MMT) were processed by melt compounding from a commercially available premixed LLDPE/nanoclay masterbatch, at different nanoclay loadings, by co-rotating twin-screw extruder. The morphological and dielectric properties of LLDPE/O-MMT nanocomposites were investigated to understand the structure-dielectric properties relationship in the nanocomposites. The microstructures of the materials were characterized by wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Initial findings by FTIR spectroscopy characterization indicated the absence of any chemical interaction between LLDPE and nanoclay during the extrusion process, while DSC showed that a 1% wt loading of nanoclay particles increased the degree of crystallinity of the nanocomposites samples. On the other hand, XRD, SEM, TEM and AFM indicated that nanoclay layers were intercalated or exfoliated in the LLDPE matrix. A correlation between the structure and dielectric properties of LLDPE/O-MMT nanocomposites was found and discussed.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2024

Presented Article evaluates the effect of nanoclay on permeability, compressive strength, and plasticity behavior of fine-grained soil related to the Tabriz landfill site. In this regard, comprehensive experimental study was performed on taken soil samples (42 specimens) with aim of design high-performance liners for Tabriz landfill. The samples was mixed by 0% (control) 3%, 6% and 9% nanoclay and prepared in 1, 7, 14 and 28 days before testing stage. Index tests like particle-size, permeability, atterberg limits, and uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) was conducted on samples. The results show that studied soil is classified as CL in USCS classification and atterberg limits measured as LL is 37, PL is 20.67, and PI is 16.33 which increase into 75, 45, and 30. The assessment presented the LL was increased about 20.27% based on increasing in nanoclay from 0% to 9%. These variations for PL and PI were 21.77% and 18.37%, respectively. Also, the and soil's compressive strength is increase from 120 kPa to 188 kPa and permeability is estimated as 4.25×10^-6 m/s which reduced into the 6.34×10^-9 m/s with respect the naboclay content increases form 0% to 9%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.191-200
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• 2017

Impact resistance and weight are important features for ballistic materials. Kevlar fibres are the most widely reinforcement for military and civil systems due to its excellent impact resistance and high strength-to-weight ratio. Kevlar fibres or spectra fiber composites are used for designing personal body armour to avoid perforation. In this study, the ballistic impact behaviour of Kevlar/filled epoxy matrix is investigated. Three different fillers, nanoclay, nanocalcite and nanocarbon, were used in order to increase the ballistic impact performance of Kevlar-epoxy composite at lower weight. The filler, nanoclay and nanocalcite, content employed was 1 wt.% and 2 of the epoxy resin-hardener mixture while the nanocarbon were dispersed into the epoxy system in a 0.5%, 1% and 2% ratio in weight relating to the epoxy matrix. Specimens were produced by a hand lay-up process. The results obtained from ballistic impact experiments were discussed in terms of damage and perforation. The experimental tests revealed a number of damage mechanisms for composite laminated plates. In the ballistic impact test, it was observed whether the target was perforated completely penetrated at the back or not. The presence of small amounts of nanoclay and nanocalcite dispersed into the epoxy system improved the impact properties of the Kevlar/epoxy composites. The laminates manufactured with epoxy resin filled by 1 wt.% of nanoclay and 2 wt% nanocalcite showed the best performance in terms of ballistic performance. The addition of nanocarbon reduced ballistic performance of Kevlar-epoxy composites when compared the results obtained for laminates with 0% nanoparticles concentration.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.139-145
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• 2016

In this study, the moisture related hygroscopic characteristics and mechanical properties of epoxy-clay nanocomposites were investigated by experiments as a function of the weight fraction of nanoclay. The hygroscopic and mechanical properties including the moisture saturation amount, moisture diffusivity, adhesive strength, and tensile properties were obtained by moisture absorption test and various tensile tests, respectively. Also, the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was devised to study of hygroscopic characteristics of nanocomposites and the results were compared to experimental results as a function of the nanoclay content. It was demonstrated that the proposed MD simulation technique can be successfully used for the prediction of the effects of the nanoclay on the moisture diffusion characteristics.

• Composites Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.189-194
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• 2013

This paper deals with the study of mechanical properties and impact energy absorbed by composites, made by using thermoplastic and thermoset as matrix, flax fiber and nanoclay as reinforcements. The nanoclay was sprayed on the fiber laminate directly after mixing with ethanol. This experiment designed by Taguchi method and have variable factors, i.e three types of fiber direction(F), three different nanoclay wt%(N) and three spray gun hole shapes(S). According to these conditions, composites were made and the optimum conditions were found to be F1N3S1, F1N2S1, F1N2S1 and F3N2S1 for thermoplastic, and F1N3S2, F1N3S2, F1N2S2 and F3N2S1 for thermoset which were matched with tensile strength, modulus, total impact absorbed energy and heat release rate respectively.