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Surface Modifications for Advanced Polymer Composites

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Soft Matter".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 May 2022) | Viewed by 10103

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Francesco Branda

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Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering, Polytechnic and Basic Sciences School, University of Naples Federico II, Piazzale Vincenzo Tecchio, 80, 80125 Naples, Italy
Interests: sol–gel chemistry; electrospinning; biocomposites; surface treatments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Aurelio Bifulco

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Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering (DICMaPI), University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Naples, Italy
Interests: hybrid O/I systems; sol–gel processes; flame retardance; multifunctional materials; thermal degradation; polymer (nano)composites; hydrophobic polymer coatings; materials for advanced oxidation processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I have been asked by the Editor of Materials (MDPI) to coordinate a Special Issue entitled “Surface Modifications for Advanced Polymer Composites”.

As you already know, fiber-reinforced polymers are intensively studied because of their light weight coupled with high specific strength and stiffness. Moreover, a wide variety of isotropic or anisotropic properties may be modified by changing the type, volume fraction, arrangement, and aspect ratio of the fibers and the chemical nature of the polymer. The applications span the fields of both industrial (particularly transportation) and civil engineering, together with biomedical devices.

One outstanding problem is interface tailoring strongly affecting the properties, particularly the mechanical ones (both strength and toughness). The present Special Issue will have a particular focus on the so many surface treatments, both physical and chemical, of the fibers that allow the tailoring of the interface and their influence on the composite properties.

The issue is open to all contributions where new surface modifications strategies and the influence of interface tailoring on polymer composite properties are studied with both the aim to deepen knowledge of processes and to find new applications. The objective is to highlight the progress in this outstanding research field.

Considering your prominent contribution in this interesting research field, I would like to cordially invite you to submit a paper to this Special Issue through the webpage of the journal

(S.I.: Surface Modifications for Advanced Polymer Composites).

Prof. Dr. Francesco Branda
Dr. Aurelio Bifulco
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

interface tailoring
polymer composites
plasma treatment
oxidation
polymer grafting
coupling agents
alkali treatment
acid treatment
sol–gel treatment
compatibilization

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 3032 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Fragmentation Mechanism in a Nitrogen Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma on Fluoropolymer Polymer Films

by Faegheh Fotouhiardakani, Morgane Laurent, Jacopo Profili, Sethumadhavan Ravichandran, Gowri Dorairaju and Gaetan Laroche

Materials 2023, 16(3), 942; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma16030942 - 19 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1905

Abstract

Due to their chemical inertness and low friction coefficient, fluoropolymers are today widely employed in sectors of activity as diverse and distinct as the textile industry, architectural sector, and medicine. However, their low surface energy results in poor adhesion, for example, when used for a component in a composite device with multiple other materials. Among the techniques used to enhance their adhesion, atmospheric pressure discharges provide a fast and low-cost method with a reduced environmental impact. Although this approach has proven to be efficient, the different chemical and physical processes in the discharge remain not fully understood. In this study, fluoropolymer surfaces were modified using an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge in a nitrogen and organic precursor environment. To prevent any damage to fluoropolymer surfaces, the dissipated power in the discharges was tuned by applying a duty cycle. Evidence shows that plasma treatment allows for the incorporation of oxygen and nitrogen in the surface resulting in the formation of hydrophilic functionalities such as carbonyl groups both in ketone and amide form, amine, and hydroxyl groups after 180 s of treatment. Overall, the data reveal that the discharge duty cycle has more effect on the oxygen and carbon content in the coating than the precursor concentration. In addition, increasing the precursor concentration limits the molecular fragmentation and nitrogen incorporation into the coating. These experiments enable the building of a better fundamental understanding of the formation mechanism of such chemical moieties at the fluoropolymer surface. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface Modifications for Advanced Polymer Composites)

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14 pages, 4226 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance of Sprayed PVDF-Al₂O₃ Composite Coating for Industrial and Civil Applications

by Adel M. A. Mohamed, Hosam Hasan, Mohamed M. El-Sayed Seleman, Essam Ahmed, Sayed M. Saleh and Rehab M. El-Maghraby

Materials 2021, 14(21), 6358; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14216358 - 24 Oct 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2162

Abstract

Because of their great water repellency, Superhydrophobic coatings have a major impact on a variety of industrial applications. The current study’s key originality is the development of low-cost, stable, superhydrophobic, and corrosion-resistant composite coatings. In the present work, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/Al₂O₃ composite coatings were produced using the spray technique to investigate the wettability and corrosion behavior of the coated materials for industrial and civil applications. PVDF was mixed with various concentrations of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles, and the mixture was sprayed onto steel, aluminum, and glass substrates. The wettability and morphology of the coated surfaces were investigated using the sessile droplet method and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The corrosion resistance of bare substrates was compared to that of those coated with PVDF alone and those coated with PVDF/Al₂O₃ nanoparticles using Tafel polarization techniques. The force of adhesion between the coat and the substrates was measured in pounds per square inch. A nanoindentation test was also used to measure the hardness of the coating layer. The PVDF/Al₂O₃ coated steel showed a significantly higher water contact angle and lower contact angle hysteresis, reaching 157 ± 2° and 7 ± 1°, respectively, compared to the coated aluminum and glass substrates. Corrosion test results showed that the superhydrophobic PVDF/Al₂O₃ coatings had a much higher corrosion protection efficiency for steel and aluminum than that of the PVDF ones. The PVDF/Al₂O₃ coated substrates showed moderate but still acceptable adhesion between the coating layer and the substrates. Moreover, the PVDF/Al₂O₃ coatings had much better mechanical properties than the PVDF only coatings. Such type of coating could be a promising candidate for possible industrial and civil applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface Modifications for Advanced Polymer Composites)

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13 pages, 1466 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Poly(L-Lactic Acid) Composite with Surface-Modified Magnesium Hydroxide Nanoparticles by Biodegradable Oligomer for Augmented Mechanical and Biological Properties

by Seung-Woon Baek, Duck Hyun Song, Ho In Lee, Da-Seul Kim, Yun Heo, Jun Hyuk Kim, Chun Gwon Park and Dong Keun Han

Materials 2021, 14(19), 5869; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14195869 - 07 Oct 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1921

Abstract

Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) has attracted a great deal of attention for its use in biomedical materials such as biodegradable vascular scaffolds due to its high biocompatibility. However, its inherent brittleness and inflammatory responses by acidic by-products of PLLA limit its application in biomedical materials. Magnesium hydroxide (MH) has drawn attention as a potential additive since it has a neutralizing effect. Despite the advantages of MH, the MH can be easily agglomerated, resulting in poor dispersion in the polymer matrix. To overcome this problem, oligo-L-lactide-ε-caprolactone (OLCL) as a flexible character was grafted onto the surface of MH nanoparticles due to its acid-neutralizing effect and was added to the PLLA to obtain PLLA/MH composites. The pH neutralization effect of MH was maintained after surface modification. In an in vitro cell experiment, the PLLA/MH composites including OLCL-grafted MH exhibited lower platelet adhesion, cytotoxicity, and inflammatory responses better than those of the control group. Taken together, these results prove that PLLA/MH composites including OLCL-grafted MH show excellent augmented mechanical and biological properties. This technology can be applied to biomedical materials for vascular devices such as biodegradable vascular scaffolds. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface Modifications for Advanced Polymer Composites)

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Review

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25 pages, 1379 KiB

Open AccessReview

Selective Oxidation of Cellulose—A Multitask Platform with Significant Environmental Impact

by Ioana A. Duceac, Fulga Tanasa and Sergiu Coseri

Materials 2022, 15(14), 5076; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma15145076 - 21 Jul 2022

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3444

Abstract

Raw cellulose, or even agro-industrial waste, have been extensively used for environmental applications, namely industrial water decontamination, due to their effectiveness, availability, and low production cost. This was a response to the increasing societal demand for fresh water, which made the purification of wastewater one of the major research issue for both academic and industrial R&D communities. Cellulose has undergone various derivatization reactions in order to change the cellulose surface charge density, a prerequisite condition to delaminate fibers down to nanometric fibrils through a low-energy process, and to obtain products with various structures and properties able to undergo further processing. Selective oxidation of cellulose, one of the most important methods of chemical modification, turned out to be a multitask platform to obtain new high-performance, versatile, cellulose-based materials, with many other applications aside from the environmental ones: in biomedical engineering and healthcare, energy storage, barrier and sensing applications, food packaging, etc. Various methods of selective oxidation have been studied, but among these, (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl) (TEMPO)-mediated and periodate oxidation reactions have attracted more interest due to their enhanced regioselectivity, high yield and degree of substitution, mild conditions, and the possibility to further process the selectively oxidized cellulose into new materials with more complex formulations. This study systematically presents the main methods commonly used for the selective oxidation of cellulose and provides a survey of the most recent reports on the environmental applications of oxidized cellulose, such as the removal of heavy metals, dyes, and other organic pollutants from the wastewater. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface Modifications for Advanced Polymer Composites)

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