Ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) is one of the best known flexible thermoplastic oxygen barrier materials in use today. It is especially important for refrigerated and shelf-stable foods where oxygen deteriorates the quality of packaged products and reduces their shelf life. EVOH accounts for a majority of thermoplastic barrier materials used for rigid or semi-rigid retortable food containers. How...

A method for integrating on-chip displacement micropumps in thermoplastic microfluidic devices is presented. Stainless steel screws serve as direct displacement pumping elements integrated directly into threaded ports formed in a thermoplastic substrate, with a microcontroller used to precisely modulate flow rates over a wide range from 0.5 – 35 μL/min, in a compact and portable format. Combine...

A resilient soft liner (RSL) has been used in processed complete dentures but controlling its thickness has always been a challenge because of uneven reduction of the denture’s intaglio surface. Use of a thermoplastic vacuum-formed template and an endodontic K-file, as guides, for the reduction of a processed mandibular complete denture to receive RSL is described in the present report. A proce...

The aim of the present work is the development of amorphous thermoplastic matrix nanocomposites based on graphite nanoparticles. Different types of graphite were used, including unmodified graphite, graphene nanoplatelets and graphite intercalation compounds. Graphite intercalation compounds were subjected to thermal treatment to attain exfoliation of the nanofiller. The exfoliation process was...

A method has been developed for the quantitative determination of the composition of thermoplastic wood composites. The method involves area measurements of the two peaks in the derivative curve of a tracing produced by the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of a thermoplastic composites sample in an inert atmosphere. This may involve the standard, constant heating rate-method, or the high resolu...

In the idea of improving the performances of both full and removable partial dentures, new materials and technologies are coming on the market, promising a better quality. Thermoplastic materials are used more and more widely in the technology of complete or removable partial dentures due to their superior qualities. Thermoplastic resins are suitable for manufacturing a wide range of removable ...

A unique method for incorporating functional porous polymer monolith elements into thermoplastic microfluidic chips is described. Monolith elements are formed in a microfabricated mold, rather than within the microchannels, and chemically functionalized off chip before insertion into solvent-softened thermoplastic microchannels during chip assembly. Because monoliths may be trimmed prior to fin...

We report the design, synthesis, morphology, phase behavior, and mechanical properties of semicrystalline, polyolefin-based block copolymers. By using living, stereoselective insertion polymerization catalysts, syndiotactic polypropylene-block-poly(ethylene-co-propylene)-block-syndiotactic polypropylene and isotactic polypropylene-block-regioirregular polypropylene-block-isotactic polypropylene...