A review of: “Mechanical Properties of Polymers and Composites” by Lawrence E. Nielsen and Robert F. Landel

Fabrication of nanoclay gel composite: A novel nanoclay masterbatch approach to nanocomposite preparation via melt extrusion process

“…The maximum flexural strength values were obviously observed with only clay loading of 1 wt% of the PS/clay nanocomposites prepared from organoclay and nanoclay masterbatches (C20_P20 and C30_P30) and then the continuous reduction was displayed with increasing the clay loading to 2 and 3 wt%, respectively. These results were described like the previous section of tensile strength according to the intercalated structure of PS/clay nanocomposites and the aggregated nanoparticles as observed from SEM results [34,44,45,47]. The reduction of flexural strain at break was exhibited with increasing of the clay contents from 1 to 3 wt% compared with the pristine PS.…”

“…In general, the decrease of tensile strength was noticed for the intercalated nanocomposite structures because the lack of strong polymer-filler interaction could affect the reduction of the cohesive forces inside the materials [34,44]. In addition to that, the inclusion of clay particles observed in the SEM images of 2 and 3 wt% of the nanocomposites by using organoclay, C20_P20 and C30_P30 induced the local stress concentration in the nanocomposites and tended to decrease the aspect ratio of the filler through the reduction of the interaction between the clay particles and the polymer matrix [45]. In particular, the greatest improvement of tensile strength was achieved from C10_P10 at a 2 wt% loading exhibiting about 36% enhancement that corresponded with the previous research of Uthirakumar et al [39], Mohanty et al [41], and Park et al [46].…”

Mechanical test and friction‐mapping on recycled polypropylene beads using atomic force microscopy

“…Mechanical tests, where important information about the structure and applicability of materials can be obtained, are very important in material characterization (Griepentrog, Krämer, & Cappella, 2013). There are several well‐established techniques such as tensile testing and hardness testing, which provide reliable and comparable results on a macroscale and microscale (Narayanan, 1995; Vincent & Ramesh, 2015). However, macro‐mechanics techniques can only be applied to homogeneous and large test samples.…”