• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.223-230
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• 2011

Considering of utilizing renewable resources and recycled plastics, green composites consisted of recycled polyethylene (PE) as matrix and eco-friendly natural fibers as reinforcement were processed and characterized in the present study. First, the wood flour/recycled polyethylene pellets with different wood flour contents were prepared by twin-screw extrusion processing. Using the pellets, wood flour/recycled polyethylene green composites were fabricated and the effects of wood flour loading on their flexural, tensile, impact properties, heat deflection temperature and fracture behavior were investigated. It was concluded that the flexural strength, flexural modulus, tensile modulus and heat deflection temperature of wood flour/recycled polyethylene green composites were increased with wood flour, whereas the tensile strength and impact strength were decreased. The fracture behavior observed by means of scanning electron microscopy supported qualitatively the tendency of the impact strength with wood flour loading, compared with the ductile fracture pattern of recycled polyethylene.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.27-34
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• 2014

In-situ $CaCO_3$ formation onto recycled wood pulp was studied to improve optical properties and ash attachment to the fiber furnish in papermaking. We controlled initial reaction temperature of in-situ $CaCO_3$ formation method from $30^{\circ}C$ to $50^{\circ}C$. It was found that the attachment of newly formed $CaCO_3$ to recycled fibers, old newspaper (ONP) in this case, was stronger than that of ground calcium carbonate (GCC, mean dia. $2.4{\mu}m$) addition case, but was not much different among those formed at different temperature. Morphologies of newly formed $CaCO_3$ were changed according to the reaction temperature. More aragonite shape was seen at higher temperature. In-situ $CaCO_3$ formation increased brightness and lowered ERIC value of ONP sheet greatly at the same level of ash contents when compared to GCC addition method, but gave equivalent ERIC and brightness when compared to those of the precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) addition method. However, tensile strength of the handsheets of the in-situ $CaCO_3$ formation method were much greater than those of the PCC addition method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.577-592
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• 2023

In this study, nanofiber-based textile sensors were developed for motion detection and monitoring. Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanofibers containing zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and silver nanowires (AgNW) were fabricated using electrospinning. PVDF was chosen as a piezoelectric polymer, zinc oxide as a piezoelectric ceramic, and AgNW as a metal to improve electric conductivity. The PVDF/ZnO/AgNW nanocomposite fibers were used to develop a textile sensor, which was then incorporated into an elbow band to develop a wearable smart band. Changes in the output voltage and peak-to-peak voltage (V_p-p) generated by the joint's flexion and extension were investigated using a dummy elbow. The β-phase crystallinity of pure PVDF nanofibers was 58% when analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; however, the β-phase crystallinity increased to 70% in PVDF nanofibers containing ZnO and to 78% in PVDF nanocomposite fibers containing both ZnO and AgNW. The textile sensor's output voltage values varied with joint-bending angle; upon increasing the joint angle from 45° to 90° to 150°, the V_p-p value increased from 0.321 V_p-p to 0.542 V_p-p to 0.660 V_p-p respectively. This suggests that the textile sensor can be used to detect and monitor body movements.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.359-365
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• 2008

We have fabricated a novel thermo-responsive nanofibrous surfaces by grafting PIPAAm by electron beam irradiation onto poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)(PHBV) nanofibrous mats. The electrospun PHBV nanofiber structures revealed randomly aligned fibers with average diameter of 400 nm. Increased atomic percent of nitrogen was observed on the PIPAAm-grafted PHBV mats after electron beam irradiation determined by ESCA. The amounts of PIPAAm-grafted onto PHBV films were $6.49{\mu}g/cm^2$ determined by ATR-FTIR. The PIPAAm-grafted surfaces exhibited decreasing contact angles by lowering the temperature from 37 to $20^{\circ}C$, while ungrafted PHBV surfaces had negligible contact angle change. This result indicates that PIPAAm surfaces, which are hydrophobic at the higher temperature, became markedly more hydrophilic in response to a temperature reduction due to spontaneous hydration of the surface-grafted PIPAAm. Thermo-responsive nanofibers showed good tissue compatibility. Cultured cells were well detached and recovered from the surfaces by changing culture temperature from 37 to $20^{\circ}C$.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.244-257
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• 2002

A thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer(TLCP) which has flexible butylene/hexylene spacers in the main chain and a triad aromatic ester type mesogenic unit containing a naphthyl group was prepared by solution polycondensation. The in-situ composites based on poly(ethylene 2,6-naphthalate) (PEN) and a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer(TLCP) were prepared and melt spun at different TLCP contents and different draw ratios to produce monofilaments. Blends of the TLCP with PEN were investigated in terms of thermal, mechanical properties and morphology. The TLCP synthesized showed nematic mesophasic behavior and its transition temperature to isotropic melt from mesophase was 249℃. The blends showed well dispersed TLCP phases in the PEN matrix without macroscopic phase separation. Inclusion of TLCP in the blends decreased the cold crystallization temperature of PEN in the blend, therefore, the TLCP acts as a nucleating agent in the blend and showed good interfacial adhesion between the dispersed LCP phases and PEN matrix with domain sizes 40~50 nm in diameter and well developed fibrillation in the monofilaments. The TLCP acted effectively as a reinforcing material in the PEN matrix at the 10wt% level, it led to an increase of initial modulus up to 270% and tensile strength by 235%, while the elongation rate increasing with higher draw ratios.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.18 no.2 s.92
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• pp.275-282
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• 2006

Recently, Fiber Reinforced Polymers(FRP) has been emerged as an alternative material to solve the corrosion of steel reinforcement in reinforced concrete structures. FRP exhibits higher specific strength and lower weight compared to steel reinforcement. Moreover, good resistance to corrosion of the FRP may be useful in aggressive environments causing deterioration such as chloride environment. However, causes for higher initial cost of FRP than that of steel, little information on the long-term behavior of FRP, and brittle failure make the efforts to apply FRP in civil structures slow. Glass fiber among the fibers used to manufacture FRP can be seen as the most beneficial material with regard to initial costs. But its low elastic modulus, which attains barely a quarter of steel, nay thus lead to excessive deflections when used as reinforcement for flexural members. This research was carried out on the tensile properties of hybrid rods made with glass and carbon fibers to improve those of FRP rod made with glass fiber. Parameters were resin type and the arrangement of glass and carbon fibers. The tensile properties of hybrid rods were compared with those of rods manufactured with only glass or carbon fibers. The results indicated that the tensile properties of hybrid rod were good when the carbon fiber was arranged in the core.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.333-339
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• 2015

Electromagnetic interference shielding composite with low density ($1.18g/cm^3$) was fabricated using electroless plated FeCo magnetic metal hollow fibers and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) polymer. Aspect ratio of the fibers were controlled and their hollow structure was obtained by heat treatment process. The FeCo hollow fibers were then mixed with EPDM to manufacture the composite. The higher aspect ratio of the magnetic metal hollow fibers resulted in high electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (30 dB) of the composite due to its low sheet resistance (30 ohm/sq). The enhanced electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness was mainly attributed to the formation of conducting network over the percolation threshold by high aspect ratio of fibers as well as an increase of the reflection loss by impedance mismatch owing to low sheet resistance, absorption loss, and multiple internal reflections loss.

• Fibers and Polymers
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.404-413
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• 2006

This study examines multiple quality optimization of the injection molding for Polyether Ether Ketone (PEEK). It also looks into the dimensional deviation and strength of screws that are reduced and improved for the molding quality, respectively. This study applies the Taguchi method to cut down on the number of experiments and combines grey relational analysis to determine the optimal processing parameters for multiple quality characteristics. The quality characteristics of this experiment are the screws' outer diameter, tensile strength and twisting strength. First, one should determine the processing parameters that may affect the injection molding with the $L_{18}(2^1{\times}3^7)$ orthogonal, including mold temperature, pre-plasticity amount, injection pressure, injection speed, screw speed, packing pressure, packing time and cooling time. Then, the grey relational analysis, whose response table and response graph indicate the optimum processing parameters for multiple quality characteristics, is applied to resolve this drawback. The Taguchi method only takes a single quality characteristic into consideration. Finally, a processing parameter prediction system is established by using the back-propagation neural network. The percentage errors all fall within 2%, between the predicted values and the target values. This reveals that the prediction system established in this study produces excellent results.

• Fibers and Polymers
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.344-351
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• 2006

This paper is intended to determine the optimal processing parameters applied to the dyeing procedure so that the desired color strength of a raw fabric can be achieved. Moreover, the processing parameters are also used for constructing a system to predict the fabric quality. The fabric selected is the nylon and Lycra blend. The dyestuff used for dyeing is acid dyestuff and the dyeing method is one-bath-two-section. The Taguchi quality method is applied for parameter design. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) is applied to arrange the optimal condition, significant factors and the percentage contributions. In the experiment, according to the target value, a confirmation experiment is conducted to evaluate the reliability. Furthermore, the genetic algorithm (GA) is combined with the back propagation neural network (BPNN) in order to establish the forecasting system for searching the best connecting weights of BPNN. It can be shown that this combination not only enhances the efficiency of the learning algorithm, but also decreases the dependency of the initial condition during the network training. Most of all, the robustness of the learning algorithm will be increased and the quality characteristic of fabric will be precisely predicted.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.216-219
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• 2009

$V_2O_5$ nanowire / polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer composite fibers were fabricated by a new simple method. The reaction of PVA and acetone facilitates the formation of the polymer membrane which can be used to make the fiber. Composite fiber is percolative in the conductance because of the low percolation threshold in $V_2O_5$ nanowire networks. The fiber composite can be applied to the electromagnetic shielding originating from the conductive nature.