• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.83-90
• /
• 2006

Supercritical carbon dioxide ($scCO_2$) has advantages of being incorporated in polymer with high solubility and of being recovered easily by depressurizing. $scCO_2$ reduces the viscosity of polymer melt and it is expected to be use as a plasticizing agent. In this work, we studied on the effect of $scCO_2$ on the rheological properties of polymer melts during extrusion process. Slit die attached to twin screw extruder was used to measure the viscosity of polymer melts plasticized by supercritical $CO_2$. A gas injection system was devised to accurately meter the supercritical $CO_2$ into the extruder barrel. Measurements of pressure drop within the die, confirmed the presence of a one phase mixture and a fully developed flow during the measurements. The viscosity measurement of polypropylene was performed at experimental conditions of various temperatures, pressures and $CO_2$ concentrations. We observed that melt viscosity of polymer was dramatically reduced by $CO_2$ addition.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.25-30
• /
• 2007

The characteristics of crosslinking and physical properties in partially crosslinked waste high density polyethylene (HDPE) were studied by introducing reactive melt processing with perbutyl peroxide (PBP). It was found that impurities in waste HDPE affected the crosslinking kinetics. Decrease in density and heat of fusion were observed in partially crosslinked HDPE while its melt viscosity increased. It was explained that impurities in waste HDPE enhanced the crosslinking compared to pure HDPE As a result, dramatic mechanical property improvement was achieved in the waste HDPE by crosslinking reaction.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.449-456
• /
• 2014

Ternary blends of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), poly(${\varepsilon}$-caprolactone) (PCL) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) were produced with different concentrations of components via melt blending. By leaching the PEO from the samples by water, porous materials were obtained with potential application for bio scaffolds. Sample porosity was evaluated by calculating the ratio of porous scaffold density (${\rho}^*$) to the non-porous material density (${\rho}_s$). Highest porosity (51.42%) was related to the samples containing 50 wt%. of PEO. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies showed the best porosity resulted by decreasing PLLA/PCL ratio at constant concentration of PEO. Crystallization behavior of the ternary blend samples was studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Results revealed that the crystallinity of PLLA was improved by addition of PEO and PCL to the samples. The porosity plays a key role in governing the compression properties. Mechanical properties are presented by Gibson-Ashby model.

• Carbon letters
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.117-124
• /
• 2014

Conductive polymer composites (CPCs) consist of a polymeric matrix and a conductive filler, for example, carbon black, carbon fibers, graphite or carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The critical amount of the electrically conductive filler necessary to build up a continuous conductive network, and accordingly, to make the material conductive; is referred to as the percolation threshold. From technical and economical viewpoints, it is desirable to decrease the conductive-filler percolation-threshold as much as possible. In this study, we investigated the effect of polymer/conductive-filler interactions, as well as the processing and morphological development of low-percolation-threshold (${\Phi}c$) conductive-polymer composites. The aim of the study was to produce conductive composites containing less multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) than required for pure polypropylene (PP) through two approaches: one using various mixing methods and the other using immiscible polymer blends. Variants of the conductive PP composite filled with MWCNT was prepared by dry mixing, melt mixing, mechanofusion, and compression molding. The percolation threshold (${\Phi}c$) of the MWCNT-PP composites was most successfully lowered using the mechanofusion process than with any other mixing method (2-5 wt%). The mechanofusion process was found to enhance formation of a percolation network structure, and to ensure a more uniform state of dispersion in the CPCs. The immiscible-polymer blends were prepared by melt mixing (internal mixer) poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF, PP/PVDF, volume ratio 1:1) filled with MWCNT.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2006.10a
• /
• pp.135-136
• /
• 2006

The shear flow properties have been reported in many cases by manufactures and fabricators. Only this characteristic is sometimes insufficient for the processings to provide a complete picture of the relationship between the processability and the flow behavior when underwent free-surface processes in which the shape and thickness of the extrudate are determined by the rheological properties of the melt, the die dimensions etc. In this paper the methodology of control of elongational flow is discussed in terms of relaxation time control of the polymer melts.

• Macromolecular Research
• /
• v.17 no.11
• /
• pp.842-849
• /
• 2009

Polycarbonate (PC)/sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) ionomer/organoclay nanocomposites were prepared by a solution intercalation process using the SPS ionomer as a compatibilizer. The effect of an organoclay on the melt crystallization behavior of the ionomer compatibilized PC were examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The melt crystallization behavior of PC was dependent on the extent of organoclay dispersion. The effect of the ionomer loading and cation size on intercalation/exfoliation efficiency of the organoclay in PC/SPS ionomer matrix was also studied using wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Dispersion of the organically modified clay in the polymer matrix improved with increasing ionomer compatibilizer loadings and cation size. The SPS ionomer compatibilized PC/organoclay nanocomposite showed enhanced melt crystallization compared to the SPS ionomer/PC blend. Well dispersed organoclay nanocomposites showed better crystallization than the poorly dispersed clay nanocomposites. These nanocomposites also showed better thermal stability than the SPS ionomer/PC blend.

• The Korean Journal of Rheology
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.159-167
• /
• 1999

Sandwich injection molding is one of the remarkable polymer processes recently developed from conventional injection molding. But it is almost impossible to do theoretical investigation that we've researched it through numerical simulation. In this paper, numerical simulation on the study of sandwich injection molding is based on Finite Element Method and FAN/Control Volume method. In addition to conventional filling parameter that can confirm skin polymer melt front, new filling parameters have been introduced to confirm core polymer melt front advancement. These filling parameters are defined in each layer which is divided to solve temperature field along the thickness direction. One can notice different filling patterns resulted from the variation of material properties such as viscosities and power-law indexes, and processing conditions such as switch-over times and wall temperatures. It gives us a better understanding of the sandwich injection molding process. And we can recognize that it's the core polymer spatial distribution after the completion of filling that is the most important key point to use this process for industrial molding process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Fiber Society Conference
• /
• 2002.04a
• /
• pp.309-312
• /
• 2002

The polymer nanocomposites are attracting considerable attention on account of the characteristic properties of nanoparticles have extremely large surface area per a unit mass. Recentry, mica-type silicates like montmorillonite have received a good deal of attention as effective nano-reinforcemen(1), but actually some critical problems such as the difficulties of exfoliation and surface modification, the weak heat-resistance of modifier, and inferior processability due to the increase in melt viscosity have restricted the mass production and various applications of the nanocoposite. (omitted)

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.26 no.6
• /
• pp.812-820
• /
• 2002

The positive temperature coefficient (PTC) characteristics of polymer composites were investigated with the nano-sized carbon black particles using solution tasting and melt compounding methods. The polymeric PTC composites should the electrical threshold at 35 wt% for the melt compounding method and 40 wt% for the solution casting method. The ethylene vinylacetate copolymer (EVA) composite showed a gradual increase of resistance as a function of temperature and showed a maximum at the polymer molting point. The resistance of the high-density polythylene (HDPE) composite remains unchanged with temperature but started to Increase sharply near the melting point of HDPE and showed a maximum resistance at the melting point of HDPE. The dispersion of nano-sized carbon black particles was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and low resistance after electrical threshold, and both methods exhibited a well dispersed morphology. When the electric current was applied to the PTC composites, the resistance started increasing at the curie temperature and further increased until the trip temperature was roached. Then the resistance remained stable over the trip temperature. The secondary increase started at T$\sub$m/ of matrix polymer and kept increasing up to the trip temperature.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.356-362
• /
• 2011

The branched polycarbonates (B-PCs) with two different branching agents were synthesized from melt polymerization. The contents of branching agent were in the range of 0.001~0.005 mol%. The chemical structure of the synthesized PC was determined by FTIR, $^1H$ NMR, and $^{13}C$ NMR, spectroscopy. The molecular weight, glass transition and degradation temperatures were determined by GPC, DSC, and TGA. The molecular weight of the phloro type B-PC had a lower value than the other one, and the glass transition temperature increased with molecular weight. Compared with linear PC, the rheological properties of the B-PC indicated an increase of complex viscosity in the low frequency region and shear thinning tendency. Power law index(n) representing shear thinning was calculated by linear regression and the values were in the range of 0.483~0.996. The rheological properties of the B-PCs were measured by a dynamic rheometer.