Brody A. Frost, E. Johan Foster^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.2, pp. 187-203, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.07940

Abstract As the world's population exponentially grows, so does the need for the production of food, with cereal production growing annually from an estimated 1.0 billion to 2.5 billion tons within the last few decades. This rapid growth in food production results in an ever increasing amount of agricultural wastes, of which already occupies nearly 50% of the total landfill area. For example, is the billions of dry tons of cellulose-containing spent coffee grounds disposed in landfills annually. This paper seeks to provide a method for isolating cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from spent coffee grounds, in order to recycle and utilize the… More >

W. Chen¹, B. Song¹

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.3, No.1, pp. 51-56, 2007, DOI:10.3970/icces.2007.003.051

Abstract Polymeric nanocomposite materials present potentials in applications with high-rate loading. In the experiments to determine the dynamic response of such nanocomposites, we used pulse shaping techniques on a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) for constant-strain-rate deformation under dynamically equilibrated stresses in specimens such that accurate stress-strain curves at various dynamic strain rates were obtained. Corresponding quasi-static stress-strain was also obtained to study the rate effects over a wide range. In this paper, the dynamic and quasi-static compression experimental results are presented and discussed on two types of polymeric nanocompositres: a polycarbonate (PC)/clay nano-composite and a set of epoxidized soybean oil… More >

J. Wang¹, D. C. C. Lam²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.17, No.3, pp. 215-232, 2010, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2010.017.215

Abstract Selected elastic moduli of nanocomposites are higher than the elastic moduli of microcomposites. Molecular immobilization and crystallization at the interfaces had been proposed as potential causes, but studies suggested that these effects are minor and cannot be used to explain the magnitude observed in nanocomposites with >3nm particles. Alternately, molecular simulation of polymer deformation showed that rotation gradients can lead to additional molecular rotations and stiffen the matrix. The stiffening is characterized by the nanostiffening material parameter, l2. In this investigation, an analytical expression for nanostiffening in nanocomposites was developed using finite element analysis. The nanostiffening in nanocomposites was determined… More >