Enhanced Crystallization of Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)by a Self-assembly Nucleating Agent

Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)(PBAT)is a promising biodegradable flexible polymer but suffers from slow crystallization rate,making it less attractive for some applications like the injection-molded products in comparison with low-density polyethylene(LDPE).This work aimed to accelerate the crystallization of PBAT by adding a self-assembly nucleating agent octamethylenedicarboxylic dibenzoylhydrazide(OMBH).PBAT/OMBH composites with various OMBH contents(0 wt%,0.5 wt%,0.7 wt%,1 wt%,2 wt%,3 wt%and 5 wt%)were prepared through melt-mixing.The effect of OMBH on the crystallization behavior,morphologies and mechanical properties of PBAT was investigated.The highest nucleation efficiency value of 59.6%was achieved for PBAT with 0.7 wt%OMBH,much higher than that of 22.7%for PBAT with 0.7 wt%talc.Atomic force microscopy results showed that OMBH formed fine fibers and induced the formation of transcrystalline layers of PBAT.Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR)combined with two-dimensional correlation spectra suggested that the intermolecular dipole-dipole N—H…O=C interactions but not hydrogen bond between OMBH and PBAT promoted the crystallization of PBAT in the initial period of crystallization.The presence of OMBH did not change the crystal form of PBAT but had positive contribution in enhancing its crystallinity and mechanical properties.This work is essential for preparing PBAT with high crystallization rate,enhancing its potential applications in injection-molded products.

Excellent energy storage performance of niobate-based glass-ceramics via introduction of nucleating agent

For glass-ceramics, how to realize the collaborative optimization of BDS and permittivity is the key toimprove the energy storage density. In this work, ZrO2 is introduced into BPKNAS glass-ceramics asnucleating agent to promote crystal development of glass-ceramics and then achieve high permittivity.When 1.5 mol% ZrO2 is added, the glass-ceramics have the highest permittivity (~128.59) and meanwhilepossess high BDS (1948.90 kV/cm) due to the dense microstructure. Therefore, BPKNAS-1.5ZrO2 glass-ceramics has the highest theoretical energy storage density (21.62 J/cm3). Moreover, the permittivityvariation of BPKNAS-1.5ZrO2 glass-ceramics is less than 6 % in the wide temperature range from 80 to300 C, showing excellent temperature stability. In addition, BPKNAS-1.5ZrO2 glass-ceramics possessesultrahigh power density, which reaches up to 382.40 MW/cm3 in overdamped circuit. The above evi-dence shows that BPKNAS-1.5ZrO2 glass-ceramics with ultrahigh energy storage density and powerdensity is very competitive in the field of energy storage applications.

Lightweight,Strong and High Heat-Resistant Poly(lactide acid)Foams via Microcellular Injection Molding with Self-Assembly Nucleating Agent

Poly(lactide acid)(PLA)foams have shown considerable promise as eco-friendly alternatives to nondegradable plastic foams,such as polystyrene(PS)foams.Nevertheless,PLA foam typically suffers from low heat-resistance and poor cellular structure stemming from its inherent slow crystallization rate and low melt strength.In this study,a high-performance PLA foam with well-defined cell morphology,exceptional strength and enhanced heat-resistance was successfully fabricated via a core-back microcellular injection molding(MIM)process.Differential scanning calorimetry(DSC)results revealed that the added hydrazine-based nucleating agent(HNA)significantly increased the crystallization temperature and accelerated the crystallization process of PLA.Remarkably,the addition of a 1.5 wt%of HNA led to a significant reduction in PLA’s cell size,from 43.5µm to 2.87µm,and a remarkable increase in cell density,from 1.08×10^(7)cells/cm^(3)to 2.15×10^(10)cells/cm^(3).This enhancement resulted in a final crystallinity of approximately 55.7%for the PLA blend foam,a marked improvement compared to the pure PLA foam.Furthermore,at 1.5 wt%HNA concentration,the tensile strength and tensile toughness of PLA blend foams demonstrated remarkable improvements of 136%and 463%,respectively.Additionally,the Vicat softening temperature of PLA blend foam increased significantly to 134.8°C,whereas the pure PLA foam exhibited only about 59.7℃.These findings underscore the potential for the preparation of lightweight injection-molded PLA foam with enhanced toughness and heat-resistance,which offers a viable approach for the production of high-performance PLA foams suitable for large-scale applications.

Suppression of supercooling of PCM-water emulsions using nano-additives

This study aims to develop a paraffin-based phase change material(PCM) emulsion with a low extent of supercooling for thermal energy storage(TES) systems to improve the cooling efficiency.Hexadecane-water emulsions were prepared and characterized. Multi-wall carbon nanotubes(MWCNTs) were dispersed in the emulsion as a nucleating agent to reduce the supercooling. The MWCNTs were chemically modified with carboxyl groups to improve the dispersion of the tubular particles in the organic liquid. Thermal analyses of the emulsions by differential scanning calorimeter(DSC) indicated that the extent of supercooling was significantly reduced. The concentration of the nucleating agent for an effective supercooling suppression as found to be very low, in agreement with previous findings, and there appeared to be a minimum concentration for the supercooling reduction.

Upgrade of nickel and iron from low-grade nickel laterite by improving direct reduction-magnetic separation process

Low-grade saprolite nickel laterite,characterized by complicated minerals composition and fine-grained and complex dissemination,was commonly treated with a low recovery efficiency of Ni and Fe by conventional methods.Hence,an improved direct reduction and magnetic separation process was proposed.Meanwhile,the mechanisms on the enhanced growth of the Ni-Fe particles and the phase transformation in the nickel laterite pellets were explored.The low-nickel concentrates as a nucleating agent can obviously decrease the activation energy for growth of Ni-Fe alloy particles during the improved direct reduction process from 197.10 to 154.81 kJ/mol when the low-nickel concentrates were added from 0 to 20%.Hence,it is able to decrease nucleation barrier,induce the growth of Fe-Ni alloy particles and increase their average size.As a result,the size of Ni-Fe particles in the pellets from less than 10 lm grew to more than 20 lm,which is beneficial for the full liberation and recovery of Ni and Fe in subsequent magnetic separation process.Therefore,the preferable Ni-Fe alloy concentrates with 6.44%Ni and 82.48%Fe can be prepared with corresponding recovery rates of 96.90%and 95.92%,respectively,when adding 20%low-nickel concentrates.

Investigating the Nucleation Effect of DMDBS on Syndiotactic Polypropylene from the Perspective of Chain Conformation

The mechanism of nucleating agents(NAs)accelerating the crystallization of semi-crystlline polymers has received continuous attention due to the extreme importance in academic research and industry application.In this work,the nucleation effect and probable mechanism of 1,3.2,4 bis(3,4-dimethylbenzylidene)sorbitol(DMDBS)on promoting the crystallization of syndiotactic polypropylene(sPP)was systematically investigated.Our results showed that DMDBS could significantly accelerate the crystallization process and did not change the crystalline form of sPP.The in situ infrred spectra recorded in the crystallization process showed that in pristine sPP the tttt conformers decreased and the tgg conformers increased subsequently.In sPP/DMDBS system,DMDBS could promote the increase of tgg conformers rather than the decrease of tttt conformers.The further analysis by 2D-IR spectra revealed that ttgg conformers increased prior to the decrease of tttt conformers in the sPP/DMDBS system comparing with pristine sPP.Considering that ttgg conformers were basic elements of helical conformation of Form I crystal for sPP,we proposed a probable nucleation mechanism of DMDBS for sPP:DMDBS could stabilize the ttgg conformers which induced these ttgg conformers to pre-orientate and aggregate into helical conformation sequences as initial nuclei quickly and early to promote the sPP crystallization.Our work provides some new insights into the nucleation mechanism of NAs for sPP.