WANG B.

Polybutene-1 (PB-1) trigonal Form I crystals with different morphologies, namely spherulitic, hedritic, and fibrous, were used as seeds to quantitatively study the cross-nucleation kinetics of the tetragonal Form II. Interestingly, a large difference in the cross-nucleation ability of the various Form I seeds was observed. The Form I fiber...

This work presents an in-depth study of fiber-induced nucleation and crystalline morphology in polybutene-1/single-fiber composites. The nucleation ability of various fibers, including carbon, glass, polypropylene (PP), poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), and stereocomplex (SC)-poly(lactide), is investigated via polarized optical microscopy. A polybutene-1...

The effect of large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) flow on isotactic polypropylene (i-PP) chain entanglement-disentanglement transition and on the subsequent crystallization behavior was studied by dynamic rheology and polarized optical microscope (POM). i-PP with reduced entanglement density was generated through the application of LAOS...

The evolution and progressive failure of the tunneling-induced soil arching effect in pile-raft foundations are still unclear. A series of tunnel-shaped trapdoor tests in a pile−raft foundation were conducted to study the effects of the tunnel−pile distance and the load on the subgrade surface on the progressive failure of the tunneling-induced...

The crystallization of heterogeneously nucleated bulk polymers typically occurs in a single exothermic process, within a narrow temperature range, i.e., a single exothermic peak is detected by differential scanning calorimetry when the material is cooled from the melt. However, when a bulk semicrystalline polymer is subdivided or dispersed into...

The nucleation process of poly(lactide) (PLA) on a series of fibers was studied by means of in situ polarized optical microscope during crystallization. Several synthetic and natural fibers (polyethylene terephthalate, carbon, Kevlar, glass, hemp, linen, and cellulose) were employed and compared to custom-spun fiber of stereocomplex (SC)...

The existence of epitaxy in polybutene-1 form II-on-form I cross-nucleation was investigated by nanofocused synchrotron X-ray diffraction. To this aim, form I hedrites, which show a lamellar stacking with a uniform crystal lattice orientation, were adopted as the substrate. The form II crystals develop a spherulitic transcrystalline layer on...

When a minor semicrystalline phase is dispersed in an immiscible blend with another polymer in the form of isolated droplets, its crystallization behavior is dominated by nucleation. In particular, nucleation can occur in the bulk volume of the phase (homogeneous nucleation), at the surface of possible nucleating foreign impurities, or at the...

When a minor semicrystalline phase is dispersed in an immiscible blend with another polymer in the form of isolated droplets, its crystallization behavior is dominated by nucleation. In particular, nucleation can occur in the bulk volume of the phase (homogeneous nucleation), at the surface of possible nucleating foreign impurities, or at the...

Rheological measurements were carried out to in-situ monitor the re-entanglement process of large amplitude oscillatory shear flow (LAOS) modified partially disentangled isotactic polypropylene (i-PP) melt. The characteristic entanglement recovery time (τent) was essentially longer than the average reptation time (τD) of fully entangled melt....

Crystallization of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) at the interface with crystalline films of two commercially employed nucleating agents (sodium benzoate (NaBz) and sodium 2,2'-methylene bis-(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate (NA-11)) and with a glass fiber (GF) was investigated using a polarized optical microscope. The analysis of the light...