The degradation of different polyethylenes, LDPE, LLDPE, and HDPE, with and without antioxidants and at different oxygen concentrations in the polymer granulates have been studied in extrusion coating processing. The degradation was followed by On Line Rheometry, Size Exclusion Chromatography, Surface Oxidation Index measurements, and GC-MS Chromatography. The degradations starts in the extrude...

Cell colonization of synthetic polymers can be regulated by physical and chemical modifications of the polymer surface. High-density and low-density polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE) were therefore activated with Ar⁺ plasma and grafted with fibronectin (Fn) or bovine serum albumin (BSA). The water drop contact angle usually decreased on the plasma-treated samples, due to the formation of oxidized gr...

In this paper the pendant drop method to measure interfacial tension between molten polymers is reviewed. A typical pendant drop apparatus is presented. The algorithms used to infer interfacial tension from the geometrical profile of the pendant drop are described in details, in particular a new routine to evaluate correctly the value of the radius at the apex of the drop, necessary to the calc...

The influence of different additives: high density polyethylene (HDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE) and TiO2 nanoparticles on the polyethylene terephthalate (PET)–rubber nanocomposite interface was investigated. The composites obtained by compression moulding from tire rubber and PET bottles’ waste were partially heterogeneous and partially compatible, as confirmed by the FTIRmeasurements. ...

The exponential increase of plastic production produces 100 million tonnes of waste plastics annually which could be converted into hydrocarbon fuels in a thermal cracking process called pyrolysis. In this research work, a direct current (DC) thermal plasma circuit is designed and used for conversion of low density polyethylene (LDPE) into diesel oil in a laboratory scale pyrolysis reactor. The...

This Critcal Review evaluates passive sampler uptake of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) in water column and interstitial water exposures as a surrogate for organism bioaccumulation. Fifty-seven studies were found where both passive sampler uptake and organism bioaccumulation were measured and 19 of these investigations provided direct comparisons relating passive sampler uptake and orga...

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) and silicon carbide (SiC) coatings are attractive because of low friction coefficient, high hardness, chemical inertness and smooth finish, which they provide to biomedical devices. Silicon wafers (Si(waf)) and silicone rubber (Si(rub)) plates were coated using plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PE-CVD) techniques. This article describes: 1- the characterizati...

A low-cost terahertz beam-splitter is fabricated using ultra-thin LDPE plastic sheeting coated with a conducting silver layer. The beam splitting ratio is determined as a function of the thickness of the silver layer--thus any required splitting ratio can be printed on demand with a suitable rapid prototyping technology. The low-cost aspect is a consequence of the fact that ultra-thin LDPE shee...

Two grades of metallocene-catalysed LLDPE and one grade of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) have been silane grafted and crosslinked by contact with water and their performance has been compared and evaluated. The effects of vinytrimethoxysilane (VTMOS) levels on the degree of crosslinking for each grade were also studied. It was found that increasing level of silane increases the degree of cros...

This work presents an add-on result of cross-linking using photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) phases in a multivariable process using the phase-resolved photoacoustic (PRPA) method. The method is tested to separate contributions from groupings -OH, -CH(2)-, -CH(3), and Si-OH overtones in the range from 700 to 2600 nm. Samples of the copolymers ethylene vinyltrimethoxysilane (EVS) and grafted viny...