Composites of LDPE filled with different amounts of graphene nanoplatelets (GnP) were prepared in form of films by means of precoating technique and single screw melt-extrusion using two types of screws, compression and mixing. This manufacturing process imposes strong anisotropy on the sample's morphology, in which the nanoplatelets become oriented along the extrusion direction. Such orientation of GnP in LDPE matrix is confirmed by scanning electron microscopy observations and it yields unique electrical properties. As compared to pure LDPE, significant reductions of the through-plane conductivity are found for the composites at relatively low electric fields (<20 kV/mm) at low filler concentrations. Above the field level of 20 kV/mm, a crossover effect is observed that results in a strong field dependency of the conductivity where the non-linear behavior starts to dominate. Moreover, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results indicate a decrease in polymer crystallinity of the composite matrix with increasing filler content, whereas thermogravimetric (TG) analysis shows a slight increase in the material's thermal stability. Application of GnP also leads to improvement of mechanical properties, manifested by the increase of Young's modulus and tensile strength in both types of samples.

The extrusion flow instabilities of two commercial styrene‐butadiene rubbers are investigated as they vary in isomer content (1,4‐cis, 1,4‐trans, and 1,2 conformation) of the butadiene monomer and the molecular architecture (linear, branched). The investigated samples have similar multimodal molecular weight distribution. Two geometries of extrusion dies, slit and round capillary, are compared in terms of the type and the spatial characteristics of the flow instabilities. The latter are quantified using three methods: a highly pressure sensitive slit die, online and offline optical analysis. The highly pressure‐sensitive slit die has three piezoelectric pressure transducers (Δt ≈ 10−3 s and Δp ≈ 10−5 bar) placed along the die length. The characteristic frequency (fChar.) of the flow instabilities follows a power law behavior as a function of shear rate to a 0.5 power for both materials,  fChar.∝trueγ˙app.0.5. A qualitative model is used to predict the spatial characteristic wavelength (λ) of the flow instabilities from round capillary to slit dies and vice versa. Slip velocities (Vs) are used to quantify the slippage at slit and round capillary dies as well.

This contribution reports on properties of low-density polyethylene-based composites filled with different amounts of graphene nanoplatelets. The studied samples were prepared in the form of films by means of the precoating technique and single screw melt-extrusion, which yields a highly ordered arrangement of graphene flakes and results in a strong anisotropy of composites morphology. The performed tests of gas permeability reveal a drastic decrease of this property with increasing filler content. A clear correlation is found between permeability and free volume fraction in the material, the latter evaluated by means of positron annihilation spectroscopy. A strong anisotropy of the thermal conductivity is also achieved and the thermal conductivity along the extrusion direction for samples filled with 7.5 wt % of GnP (graphene nanoplatelets) reached 2.2 W/m·K. At the same time, when measured through a plane, a slight decrease of thermal conductivity is found. The use of GnP filler leads also to improvements of mechanical properties. The increase of Young's modulus and tensile strength are reached as the composites become more brittle.

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) self-assemble and can be flow-assembled to liquid crystalline orders in a water suspension. The orders range from nano- to macroscale with the contributions of individual crystals, their micron clusters, and macroscopic assemblies. The resulting hierarchies are optically active materials that exhibit iridescence, reflectance, and light transmission. Although these assemblies have the potential for future renewable materials, details about structures on different hierarchical levels that span from the nano- to the macroscale are still not unraveled. Rheological characterization is essential for investigating flow properties; however, bulk material properties make it difficult to capture the various length-scales during assembly of the suspensions, for example, in simple shear flow. Rheometry is combined with other characterization methods to allow direct analysis of the structure development in the individual hierarchical levels. While optical techniques, scattering, and spectroscopy are often used to complement rheological observations, coupling them in situ to allow simultaneous observation is paramount to fully understand the details of CNC assembly from liquid to solid. This Review provides an overview of achievements in the coupled analytics, as well as our current opinion about opportunities to unravel the structural distinctiveness of cellulose nanomaterials.