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YAN WANG^a, JIN-HUA WANG^a, JUN-HUA BAI^a, LI-FANG ZHANG^a,b,*
Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.35, No.4, pp. 393-408, 2018, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.1
Abstract Biodegradable poly(L-lactide)-poly(ethyleneglycol)-poly(L-lactide) (PLLA-b-PEG-b-PLLA) triblock copolymers and 4-arm star-shaped poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(L-lactide) (4-arm star-shaped PEGb-PLLA) block copolymers were synthesized via ring-opening polymerization of L-lactide (LLA) in the presence of hydroxyl-terminated α, ω-dihydroxy PEG2000 (PEG2000) and 4-arm PEG as a macroinitiator and 2, 3, 6, 7-tetrahydro-5H-thiazolo [3, 2-a] pyrimidine (ITU) as an organic catalyst. The resultant copolymers were analyzed using various techniques including 1 H NMR, FTIR, GPC and DSC. The micellar aggregates were formed from the amphiphilic block copolymers. The relationship between the architecture of block copolymers and their micellization properties, such as critical micelle concentration (CMC) More >

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RABIRANJAN MURMU^1,*, HAREKRUSHNA SUTAR^1,2
Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.35, No.4, pp. 409-431, 2018, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.2
Abstract A novel Sulfonated polyether etherketone (SPEEK) - Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) -Titanium dioxide (TiO₂ ) composite membrane is prepared for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) by solution casting method. In order to enhance the mechanical, thermal and hydrolytic stability of the SPEEK/PVA film; different compositions of TiO₂ particles are dispersed as filler. Membrane uniformity is confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Composite membrane is characterized by FTIR, XRD, water uptake, Ion Exchange Capacity (IEC), DSC, TGA and Proton conductivity. Prepared composite membrane shows better water uptake capacity with lowering IEC. TiO₂ has the significant effect on methanol… More >

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NEERAJ MITTAL, GURPREET KAUR^*
Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.35, No.4, pp. 433-448, 2018, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.3
Abstract Currently, biomedical, food, and pharmaceutical industries are exploring biocompatible, biodegradable, and readily available polymers as an alternative to synthetic polymers. The naturally occurring galactomannans comprising of galactopyranosyl (Gal) and mannopyranosyl (Man) residues are an attractive alternative to synthetic polymers due to their wide availability, and easily maniputable physical, and chemical properties. In the present study, a natural polymer, Leucaenea leucocephala galactomannan (LLG) was extracted from the seeds of Leucaenea leucocephala by an aqueous method, derivatized by reductive amination process using ethylene diamine as aminating agent to form aminated LLG (AMLLG). The conditions for amination were… More >

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KRISHAN KUMAR PATEL^1,*, RAJESH PUROHIT¹, S.A.R. HASHMI², RITESH KUMAR GUPTA²
Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.35, No.4, pp. 449-462, 2018, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.4
Abstract Microwave-induced shape memory polymer (Polyurethane)/Graphene nanoplatelets composite were prepared in micro-compounder. When samples exposed in moisture (immersed in water), the thermo-mechanical and shape memory properties such as Tensile strength, glass transition temperature, storage modulus, stretch and recovery strength were decreased. The surface morphology and dispersion of GNPs in PU matrix were characterized by using the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). Further, we found that the PU specimen has no shape recovery during MV irradiations without moisture exposed sample. But moisture exposed PU sample shows shape recovery. More >

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M. CHANDRASEKAR^1,*, M.R. ISHAK^1,2, S.M. SAPUAN³, Z. LEMAN^2,3, M. JAWAID⁴, R.M.SHAHROZE¹
Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.35, No.4, pp. 463-473, 2018, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.5
Abstract Fibre metal laminate (FML) with the carbon, flax and sugar palm fibres were prepared by hand layup and hot press technique. Their tensile and fatigue properties were studied. Results indicate that both the tensile properties and fatigue behaviour was dependent on the natural fibre type and their stacking sequence in the laminate. Flax based FML showed promising results with superior tensile properties and fatigue life. It also displayed fibre bridging mechanism, a phenomenon responsible for the higher fatigue life. Introducing flax in combination with sugar palm fibre resulted in slightly higher fatigue life than the More >

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SHIVA ARUN¹, PRABHA BHARTIYA², AMREEN NAZ², SUDHEER RAI², S.S. NARVI², P.K. DUTTA^2,*
Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.35, No.4, pp. 475-484, 2018, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.6
Abstract Polyoxometalates are a class of stable metal-oxide clusters with great molecular diversity having significant biological applications. Firstly, europium substituted polyoxometalate K₄ H[Eu(α -SiW₁₁O₃₉)-(H₂O)₂].17H₂ O (Eu-Si-POM) was synthesized and Eu-Si-POM was encapsulated into biocompatible chitosan (CS), through ionotropic gelation technique thus synthesizing a nano-hybrid (CS-Eu-Si-POM). CS-Eu-Si-POM retained the fluorescence property even after encapsulation. The nano-hybrid CS-Eu-Si-POM was characterized using FT-IR, UV-Vis spectra, fluorescence spectra, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). Eu-Si-POM was further characterized by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) technique. These characterization techniques reveal the successful encapsulation of Eu-Si-POM within More >

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S. RAJKUMAR¹, R. JOSEPH BENSINGH¹, M. ABDUL KADER¹, SANJAY K NAYAK¹
Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.35, No.4, pp. 485-496, 2018, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.7
Abstract The main objective of this study is to correlate the surface energy and mechanical properties of bio-based composites and also to establish the relationship between surface energy and composite performance. The surfaces of sisal fibers are treated by NaOH and isocyanate reagents to improve the surface properties. The surface energy of the untreated and treated fibers were estimated from contact angle measurements by using the theoretical approach. The adsorption between fibers and matrix was also examined. Modified fiber surface showed better adsorption performance as compared to untreated fiber and thus indicated good wetting behaviour of More >

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YINCHUN FANG^1,*, XINHUA LIU^1,2,*, XIAO WU¹, XUCHEN TAO¹
Journal of Polymer Materials, Vol.35, No.4, pp. 497-506, 2018, DOI:10.32381/JPM.2018.35.04.8
Abstract Polyurethane (PU) possesses excellent mechanical properties which has been used as the matrix for heavy metal ions removal. However, it has poor adsorption capacity due to there doesn’t exist chelating groups. In this study, phytic acid modified polyurethane (PU) fibers have been successfully prepared by wet spinning which was used for Pb²⁺ removal. The modified fibers achieved the highest adsorption capacity under the conditions of the mass ratio of phytic acid and PU was 5:7, the pH of Pb²⁺ solution was 6 and the adsorption temperature was 20 °C. The adsorption process of Pb²⁺ by phytic acid More >

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