We have previously reported the use of hydrogel particles as the draw agent for forward osmosis desalination. In the present work, the effects of draw agent, feed concentration and membrane on the process performance were systematically examined. Our results showed that the incorporation of carbon filler particles in polymer hydrogels led to enhanced swelling ratios of the draw agents and thus ...

New composite membranes based on porous anodic alumina films and polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) have been prepared using a spin-coating technique. According to scanning electron microscopy, partial penetration of polymer into the pores of alumina supports takes place giving rise to selective polymeric layers with fiber-like microstructure. Geometric confinement of rigid PIM-1 in the...

Dynamic TG analysis under nitrogen was used to investigate the thermal decomposition processes of 10 types of natural fibers commonly used in the polymer composite industry. These fibers included wood, bamboo, agricultural residue, and bast fibers. Various degradation models including the Kissinger, Friedman, FlynneWalleOzawa, and modified CoatseRedfern methods were used to determine the appare...

The significant increase in the Young’s modulus of nanotube-polymer composites is often correlated with the formation of a crystalline layer of polymers surrounding the nanotubes. Although the improved stress transfer between the stiffer nanotube and the softer polymer matrix has been attributed to the presence of this wellordered polymeric layer, the actual mechanism for this stress transfer i...

The osmotic and scattering properties of hyaluronan-based composite hydrogels composed of stiff biopolymer chains (carboxymethylated thiolated hyaluronan (CMHA-S)) crosslinked by a flexible polymer (polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA)) are investigated and analyzed in terms of the scaling theory. The total pre-gel polymer weight concentration is varied between 0.5 wt.% and 3.2 wt.%, while th...

Reciprocity principles, which entail equivalent outcome on exchange of cause and effect, are widely used and accepted. We present a piezoelectric composite system designed so that reciprocity does not hold; sensitivity is substantially enhanced. Reciprocity failure is observed in which the piezoelectric direct effect (stress causes polarization) sensitivity dkij is unequal to the converse effec...

Poly(vinylidene fluoride) electrospun membranes have been prepared with different NaY zeolite contents up to 32%wt. Inclusion of zeolites induces an increase of average fiber size from ~200 nm in the pure polymer up to ~500 nm in the composite with 16%wt zeolite content. For higher filler contents, a wider distribution of fibers occurs leading to a broader size distributions between the previou...

The goal of the research described in this paper is to investigate the feasibility of a new combined polymer composite damping system, which consists of a polymer honeycomb material and a viscoelastic solid material. This new combined viscoelastic system, which is intended primarily for energy dissipation and vibration control, serves as an interface layer within lightweight composite panels su...

We propose to use a hybrid downconverter system comprising low-cost green perovskite-polymer composite films for liquid crystal display (LCD) backlight unit (BLU) to realize wide color gamut. Recently, ultrastable, highly luminescent CH3NH3PbBr3 (MAPbBr3) organic-inorganic perovskite-polymer composite films have been developed. These films exhibit outstanding color quality with a full-width-at-...

A magnetic target drug delivery system consisting of biodegradable polymeric microspheres (poly D, L-lactic acid) loaded with magnetite nanoparticles (10-100 nm) and anticancer drug (paclitaxel) was studied. The magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical precipitation. The as-synthesized magnetite nanoparticles were subsequently introduced into a mixture of polymer magnetic polymeric ...