Dense CO2 can be used as an environmentally-benign polymer processing medium because of its liquid-like densities and gas-like mass transfer properties.In this work, polymer bio-blends of polycarbonate (PC), a biocompatible polymer, and polycaprolactone (PCL), a biodegradable polymer were prepared. Dense CO2 was used as a reaction medium for the melt-phase PC polymerization in the presence of d...

The use of blends of electron and hole transporting polymers has been shown to increase exciton dissociation and efficiency in polymer-based photovoltaics. We compare plain M3EHPPV devices to M3EH-PPV:CN-ether-PPV blend devices, demonstrating the improved performance of blends. We vary the polymer layer thickness and device electrodes for M3EHPPV:CN-ether-PPV polymer blend devices to investigat...

Polymer thin films with micro/nano-structures can be prepared by a solvent evaporation induced phase separation process via spin-casting a polymer blend, where the elongated phase separation domains are always inevitable. The striation defect, as a thickness nonunifomity in spin-cast films, is generally coexistent with the elongated domains. Herein, the morphologies of polymer blend thin films ...

This work focuses on the characteristics of polymer blend electrolytes based on corn starch and chitosan doped with ammonium iodide (NH4I). The electrolytes were prepared using the solution cast method. A polymer blend comprising 80wt% starch and 20wt% chitosan was found to be the most amorphous blend and suitable to serve as the polymer host. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis pr...

Submitted for the MAR10 Meeting of The American Physical Society Phase equilibria in polymer-blend thin films NIGEL CLARKE, MIREILLE SOUCHE, Durham University — To describe equilibrium concentration profiles in thin films of polymer mixtures, we propose a Hamiltonian formulation of the Flory-Huggins-de Gennes theory describing a polymer blend thin film. We first focus on the case of 50:50 polym...

in the past decade, electrospinning as a facile and effective means in producing nanofibers with diameters ranging from microns down to a few nanometers has been developed and considered important. in this work, electrospinning of an interesting natural biopolymer, sodium alginate, has been investigated. the results showed that water solution of sodium alginate cannot be electrospun into nanofi...

In the present study, Floating Drug Delivery Beads (FDDS) were prepared with sodium alginate/ starch blend as a matrix, sodium hydrogen carbonate as a pore forming agent, methyl cellulose as a binder and barium chloride solution as a hardening agent. In order to prepare the beads with different porosity and morphology the ratio between pore forming agent to polymer blend and ratio of the co...

Relatively tough epoxy-blend polymers are now commercially available for use as adhesives and as the matrices for fibre composites. Nevertheless, another failure property which may be of equal, or even of greater, importance in some applications is the resistance of the epoxy polymer to cyclic-fatigue loading. However, the cyclic-fatigue behaviour of epoxy polymers has not been studied in great...

Aalto University, P.O. Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto www.aalto.fi Author Laura Taajamaa Name of the doctoral dissertation Supported ultrathin films and non-woven fibre mats from polysaccharide containing bicomponent polymer blends Publisher School of Chemical Technology Unit Department of Forest Products Technology Series Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 87/2014 Field of r...