Constructing highly aligned crystalline structure to enhance sliding wear performance of bulk polyamide 6

Green Recycling of Carbon/Carbon Composites by Solid-State Shear Milling Technology as a Polyamide Multi-Functional Modifier

Carbon/carbon (C/C) composite materials are widely used in aerospace, the military and nuclear energy. The outstanding mechanical qualities of C/C composites mean that they are difficult to crush and recycle using traditional technology. The current recycling methods primarily involve stacking and landfill disposal. Therefore, achieving efficient and environmentally friendly recycling of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites is an urgent and challenging issue. In this work, we reported a simple high-value recycling approach for carbon-carbon frictional composite material (CFCM). The solid-state shear milling (S3M) technology is employed to achieve ultrafine milling of carbon matrices in carbon/carbon (C/C) composite materials while preserving carbon fibers. By this means, carbon fibers and the carbon matrix were mainly split, and the prepared composite powder had combined functionalities of conductivity, thermal conductivity, reinforcement, and wear resistance. The experimental results showed that the tensile strength of the material increased from 64.35 MPa to 72.79 MPa after being compounded with PA6, and the thermal conductivity increased from 0.211 W/mK to 0.611 W/mK. The friction coefficient was reduced from 0.51 to 0.36, a reduction of 25.4%, and the heat deflection temperature was increased from 47.2 °C to 108.2 °C. The S3M technique proposed in this work is an efficient, high-value, and scalable recycling strategy for CFCM, which can be used to produce value-added products and has great application prospects.

Step-by-Step Tuning of Tribological and Anticorrosion Performance of Zinc Phosphate Conversion Coatings through Effective Integration of Spherical P-Doped MoS2 Nanoparticles

Surface coatings with enhanced mechanical stability, improved tribological performance, and superior anticorrosion performance find immense application in various industrial sectors. Herein, we report the development of multifunctional composite zinc phosphate coatings by the effective integration of a structurally and morphologically tuned P-doped MoS2 nanoparticle additive (3P-MoS2) into the zinc phosphate matrix to offer attractive characteristics suitable for industrial applications. The integration of spherical nanoparticles as additive leads to the formation of homogeneous and compact coatings with a densely packed crystalline microstructure having enhanced microhardness, distinctive leaf-like morphology, and comparatively smooth topographical features. The attractive lubricity of the additive (3P-MoS2), coupled with its spherical morphology, facilitates a transition from sliding to rolling friction and contributes significantly toward the performance enhancement of the tuned composition of the composite zinc phosphate coating (0.3-PMS). Thus, the tuned 0.3-PMS coating delivers the lowest specific wear rate (1.334 × 10-5 mm3/Nm) and coefficient of friction (0.114) that significantly outperform bare-zinc phosphate coating. Further, the electrochemical corrosion study results indicate the improvement in corrosion resistance behavior of the composite zinc phosphate coatings with reduced corrosion current density (icorr) and charge transfer resistance (Rct) values, as compared to the bare-zinc phosphate coating. The effect of passivation in conjunction with the barrier protection characteristics of the composite coatings induced by the optimal composition of the integrated additive nanoparticles (3P-MoS2) can efficiently prevent the infiltration of corrosive ions and thereby significantly reduce the rate of corrosion.

Analysis of photocatalytic degradation of polyamide microplastics in metal salt solution by high resolution mass spectrometry

Microplastic pollution has become one of the most concerned focuses in the world. Among many treatment methods, photocatalysis is considered to be one of the most environmentally friendly methods. In this work, the photodegradation behavior of polyamide microplastics is studied by using polyamide 6 PA6) as model microplastics and FeCl3 as catalyst. It is hoped that the PA6 fiber can be effectively degraded by utilizing the strong oxidizing active species that can be produced after FeCl3 is irradiated in water. The results shows that PA6 fiber can be almost completely degraded after 10 days of irradiation in FeCl3 aqueous solution, indicating that it is promising to use this new method to solve the problem of PA6 type microplastics. In addition, the chain scission mechanism and degradation process of PA6 are analyzed in detail by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS), which provides a new insight for the study of polymer degradation mechanism.

Investigation on the Correlation between Biaxial Stretching Process and Macroscopic Properties of BOPA6 Film

Biaxially oriented polyamide 6 (BOPA6) films were prepared by extrusion casting and biaxial stretching with polyamide 6. The effects of different biaxially oriented on the macroscopic properties of BOPA6 were investigated by characterizing the rheological, crystallization, optical, barrier and mechanical properties. The results show that the increase of stretching temperature leads to the diffusion and regular stacking rate of BOPA6 chain segments towards crystal nuclei increases, the relative crystallinity increases, reaching 27.87% at 180 °C, and the mechanical strength and optical performance decrease. Heat-induced crystallization promotes the transformation of β-crystals to α-crystals in BOPA6, resulting in a more perfect crystalline structure and enhancing oxygen barrier properties. BOPA6 chains are oriented, and strain-induced crystallization (SIC) occurs during the biaxial stretching. Further increasing the stretch ratio, the relative crystallinity increased to 30.34%. The machine direction (MD) and transverse direction (TD) tensile strength of BOPA6 (B-33) are nearly two times higher than the unstretched film, reaching 134.33 MPa and 155.28 MPa, respectively. In addition, the permeation decreases to 57.61 cc·mil/(m2 day), and the oxygen barrier performance has improved by nearly 30% compared to the sample B-22. BOPA6 has a high storage modulus at a high stretching rate (300%/s). Rapid chain relaxation would promote the molecular chain disorientation, destroy the entangled network of the molecular chain, and lead to a decrease in tensile strength, reducing to about 110 MPa.

Microporous Formation Mechanism of Biaxial Stretching PA6/PP Membranes with High Porosity and Uniform Pore Size Distribution

The low porosity and wide pore size distribution of biaxial stretching PP microporous membranes continue to be the primary impediments to their industrial application. To solve this problem, there is a critical and urgent need to study the micropore-forming mechanism of PP membranes. In this research, the interfacial micropore formation mechanism of PA6/PP membranes during biaxial stretching was investigated. PA6/PP membranes containing spherical PA6 and fibrillar PA6 were found to exhibit different interfacial micropore formation mechanisms. Numerous micropores were generated in the PA6/PP membranes, containing PA6 spherical particles via the interface separation between the PP matrix and PA6 spherical particles during longitudinal stretching. Subsequent transverse stretching further expanded the two-phase interface, promoting the breakdown and fibrosis of the PP matrix and forming a spider-web-like microporous structure centered on spherical PA6 particles. In PA6/PP membranes with PA6 fibers, fewer micropores were generated during longitudinal stretching, but the subsequent transverse stretching violently separated the PA6 fibers, resulting in a dense fiber network composed of PA6 fibers interwoven with PP fibers. Crucially, the PA6/PP biaxial stretching of microporous membranes presented an optimized pore structure, higher porosity, narrower pore size distribution, and better permeability than β-PP membranes. Furthermore, this study explored a new approach to the fabrication of high-performance PA6/PP microporous membranes, with good prospects for potential industrial application.