Nanocellular Polymers: The Challenge of Creating Cells in the Nanoscale

León, Judith Martín‐de; Bernardo, Victoria; Rodríguez‐Pérez, Miguel Ángel

doi:10.3390/ma12050797

Cited by 30 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Theoretically, the reductions in the thermal conduction of the gas phase start to be significant in comparison with microcellular polymers for cell sizes under 500 nm. Moreover, recently, semi‐transparent nanocellular foams have been reported and, due to their nano‐sized cell size, these materials have the potential to be used in membranes for ultrafiltration or in catalysis and sensors . Most research on nanocellular polymers is focused on their production, whereas the literature on the mechanical characterization is relatively scarce.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical Properties of PMMA‐Sepiolite Nanocellular Materials with a Bimodal Cellular Structure

Bernardo

Loock

León

et al. 2019

Macro Materials & Eng

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Bimodal cellular poly(methyl methacrylate) with micro‐ and nano‐sized (300–500 nm) cells with up to 5 wt% of sepiolite nanoparticles and porosity from 50% to 75% are produced by solid‐state foaming. Uniaxial compression tests are performed to measure the effect of sepiolite concentration on the elastic modulus and the yield strength of the solid and cellular nanocomposites. Single edge notch bend tests are conducted to relate the fracture toughness of the solid and cellular nanocomposites to sepiolite concentration. The relative modulus is independent of sepiolite content to within material scatter when considering the complete porosity range. In contrast, a mild enhancement of the relative modulus is observed by the addition of sepiolite particles for the foamed nanocomposites with a porosity close to 50%. The relative compressive strength of the cellular nanocomposites mildly decreases as a function of sepiolite concentration. A strong enhancement of the relative fracture toughness by the addition of sepiolites is observed. The enhancement of the relative fracture toughness and the relative modulus (at 50% porosity) can be attributed to an improved dispersion of the particles due to foaming and the migration of micro‐sized aggregates from the solid phase to the microcellular pores during foaming.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanical Properties of PMMA‐Sepiolite Nanocellular Materials with a Bimodal Cellular Structure

Bernardo

Loock

León

et al. 2019

Macro Materials & Eng

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“…Besides, the thermal conductivity of nanocellular polymers starts to be competitive with that of the ones currently on the market for relative densities smaller than 0.15. 4,7 On the other hand, when referring to the transparency of these cellular materials, more demanding requirements are needed, cell sizes smaller than 50 nm are needed, and it also expected that this property would strongly depend on the cellular material density. 8 Therefore, it is mandatory to acquire a fine control of the process of the design of nanocellular polymers with the right density and cell size, and, in this sense, it is also needed to find simple approaches to obtain that control.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the viscosity of poly(methyl methacrylate) on the cellular structure of nanocellular materials

León

Bernardo

Laguna‐Gutiérrez³

et al. 2019

Polymer International

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Three different grades of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) with different rheological properties are used for the production of nanocellular materials using gas dissolution foaming. The influences of both the viscosity of the different polymers and the processing parameters on the final cellular structure are studied using a wide range of saturation and foaming conditions. Foaming conditions affect similarly all cellular materials. It is found that an increase of the foaming temperature results in less dense nanocellular materials, with higher cell nucleation densities. In addition, it is demonstrated that a lower viscosity leads to cellular polymers with a lower relative density but larger cell sizes and smaller cell nucleation densities, these differences being more noticeable for the conditions in which low solubilities are reached. It is possible to produce nanocellular materials with relative densities of 0.24 combined with cell sizes of 75 nm and cell nucleation densities of 10 15 nuclei cm −3 using the PMMA with the lowest viscosity. In contrast, minimum cell sizes of around 14 nm and maximum cell nucleation densities of 3.5 × 10 16 nuclei cm −3 with relative densities of 0.4 are obtained with the most viscous one.

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“…It is well known that polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is one of the most widely used acrylate plastics because of its excellent aging resistance and biocompatibility [15,16]. PMMA is a weakly polar polymer compound that contains -CH 3 groups [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wettability of a Polymethylmethacrylate Surface by Extended Anionic Surfactants: Effect of Branched Chains

Jiang

Zhang

et al. 2021

Molecules

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The adsorption behaviors of extended anionic surfactants linear sodium dodecyl(polyoxyisopropene)4 sulfate (L-C12PO4S), branched sodium dodecyl(polyoxyisopropene)4 sulfate (G-C12PO4S), and branched sodium hexadecyl(polyoxyisopropene)4 sulfate (G-C16PO4S) on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) surface have been studied. The effect of branched alkyl chain on the wettability of the PMMA surface has been explored. To obtain the adsorption parameters such as the adhesional tension and PMMA-solution interfacial tension, the surface tension and contact angles were measured. The experimental results demonstrate that the special properties of polyoxypropene (PO) groups improve the polar interactions and allow the extended surfactant molecules to gradually adsorb on the PMMA surface by polar heads. Therefore, the hydrophobic chains will point to water and the solid surface is modified to be hydrophobic. Besides, the adsorption amounts of the three extended anionic surfactants at the PMMA–liquid interface are all about 1/3 of those at the air–liquid interface before the critical micelle concentration (CMC). However, these extended surfactants will transform their original adsorption behavior after CMC. The surfactant molecules will interact with the PMMA surface with the hydrophilic heads towards water and are prone to form aggregations at the PMMA–liquid interface. Therefore, the PMMA surface will be more hydrophilic after CMC. In the three surfactants, the branched G-C16PO4S with two long alkyl chains exhibits the strongest hydrophobic modification capacity. The linear L-C12PO4S is more likely to densely adsorb at the PMMA–liquid interface than the branched surfactants, thus L-C12PO4S possesses the strongest hydrophilic modification ability and shows smaller contact angles on PMMA surface at high concentrations.

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Nanocellular Polymers: The Challenge of Creating Cells in the Nanoscale

Cited by 30 publications

References 86 publications

Mechanical Properties of PMMA‐Sepiolite Nanocellular Materials with a Bimodal Cellular Structure

Mechanical Properties of PMMA‐Sepiolite Nanocellular Materials with a Bimodal Cellular Structure

Influence of the viscosity of poly(methyl methacrylate) on the cellular structure of nanocellular materials

Wettability of a Polymethylmethacrylate Surface by Extended Anionic Surfactants: Effect of Branched Chains

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