This article reviews the advances in layered double hydroxide (LDH) materials and the synthesis of LDH-based elastomer composites. The potential of tuning the structure of LDH materials for desired ...properties and applications has attracted both academic and industrial interest in recent years. The modification of LDH materials and the use of such materials in the synthesis of composites with different elastomer matrices have been critically analyzed. Emphasis has been given to the use of Mg-Al LDHs and Zn-Al LDHs with different elastomers. The use of modified LDHs with elastomers substantially improves their mechanical, thermal and optical properties. Even “smart properties” of elastomers, such as reversible thermotropic optical characteristics, have been realized with the use of LDH-based multifunctional additives in rubber formulations. The flame retardance of some elastomer composites has also been enhanced with the use of modified LDHs. The possibility of replacing ZnO with LDH during rubber compounding has also been discussed, which would lead to drastic interventions in the well-established rubber processing technologies. LDH materials have also been reported to be biocompatible. Therefore, among the various possible applications of LDHs in different material development processes, their use in rubber technology offers the potential for environmentally friendly rubber products, even tires. Throughout this article, the structure, synthesis, properties and applications of elastomer/(LDH) composites are discussed, including suitable examples taken from the relevant literature.
Simple geometrical considerations show that the collision zone in high energy nuclear collisions may be divided into a central part ("core"), with high energy densities, and a peripheral part ...("corona"), with smaller energy densities, more like in pp or pA collisions. We present calculations that allow us to separate these two contributions, and which show that the corona contribution is quite small (but not negligible) for central collisions, but gets increasingly important with decreasing centrality. We will discuss consequences concerning results obtained in heavy ion collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and CERN Super Proton Synchrotron.
A detail study concerning the strain (tensile) dependent electrical conductivity of elastomeric composites is reported in this present paper. Multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNT), conducting carbon black ...(CB), and their combinations were considered as conducting filler in cross-linked natural rubber matrix. The loadings of the fillers were considered from 3 to 11 phr (filler concentration close to their percolation threshold). Without hindering the elastic nature of the composite (reversible stretchability up to several 100%), the change of relative resistance, ΔR/R0 (ΔR is the change in the resistance with respect to strain and R 0 is the initial resistance of the sample) of the CB filled composites was found to be as much as ∼1300 at around 120% elongation. This value is much higher than any other reported values obtained from conducting polymeric composites. It was found that CNT offered a strong strain dependent character in the regime 100% to 150% elongation, whereas, the carbon black filled natural rubber showed strong strain dependencies at 50% to 100% elongation strain. The combination of two different fillers could be exploited to tailor and manipulate the sensing operating regime from 50% to 150% strain depending on the ratios of the two filler system. Additionally, after several loading–unloading cycles, the conductivity of the sample was very stable for CB filled system but for CNT filled system the conductivity of the sample was altered. This type of elastic materials could be used in structural health monitoring, sensors in different dynamic elastomeric parts like tires, valves, gaskets, engine mounts, etc.
Summary Background Complete lymph node dissection is recommended in patients with positive sentinel lymph node biopsy results. To date, the effect of complete lymph node dissection on prognosis is ...controversial. In the DeCOG-SLT trial, we assessed whether complete lymph node dissection resulted in increased survival compared with observation. Methods In this multicentre, randomised, phase 3 trial, we enrolled patients with cutaneous melanoma of the torso, arms, or legs from 41 German skin cancer centres. Patients with positive sentinel lymph node biopsy results were eligible. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to undergo complete lymph node dissection or observation with permuted blocks of variable size and stratified by primary tumour thickness, ulceration of primary tumour, and intended adjuvant interferon therapy. Treatment assignment was not masked. The primary endpoint was distant metastasis-free survival and analysed by intention to treat. All patients in the intention-to-treat population of the complete lymph node dissection group were included in the safety analysis. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT02434107 . Follow-up is ongoing, but the trial no longer recruiting patients. Findings Between Jan 1, 2006, and Dec 1, 2014, 5547 patients were screened with sentinel lymph node biopsy and 1269 (23%) patients were positive for micrometastasis. Of these, 483 (39%) agreed to randomisation into the clinical trial; due to difficulties enrolling and a low event rate the trial closed early on Dec 1, 2014. 241 patients were randomly assigned to the observation group and 242 to the complete lymph node dissection group. Ten patients did not meet the inclusion criteria, so 233 patients were analysed in the observation group and 240 patients were analysed in the complete lymph node dissection group, as the intention-to-treat population. 311 (66%) patients (158 in the observation group and 153 in the dissection group) had sentinel lymph node metastases of 1 mm or less. Median follow-up was 35 months (IQR 20–54). Distant metastasis-free survival at 3 years was 77·0% (90% CI 71·9–82·1; 55 events) in the observation group and 74·9% (69·5–80·3; 54 events) in the complete lymph node dissection group. In the complete lymph node dissection group, grade 3 and 4 events occurred in 15 patients (6%) and 19 patients (8%) patients, respectively. Adverse events included lymph oedema (grade 3 in seven patients, grade 4 in 13 patients), lymph fistula (grade 3 in one patient, grade 4 in two patients), seroma (grade 3 in three patients, no grade 4), infection (grade 3 in three patients, no grade 4), and delayed wound healing (grade 3 in one patient, grade 4 in four patients); no serious adverse events were reported. Interpretation Although we did not achieve the required number of events, leading to the trial being underpowered, our results showed no difference in survival in patients treated with complete lymph node dissection compared with observation only. Consequently, complete lymph node dissection should not be recommended in patients with melanoma with lymph node micrometastases of at least a diameter of 1 mm or smaller. Funding German Cancer Aid.
In the present work, a strong filler–filler network of conductive carbon black was strategically established in an elastomer matrix, which leads to a unique combination of electrical and mechanical ...properties. The novelty of our composites was the development of a strong percolated morphology of nanostructured conducting carbon black particles by the incorporation of relatively large nonreinforcing spherical silica particles, inside the soft elastomer matrix. This technique allowed us to fabricate solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) composites with outstanding electrical conductivity of 40 S/m, tensile strength ∼10 MPa, and extensibility up to 200%. Furthermore, the electrical conductivity was strain-independent up to 50% elongation strain. The electrical conductivity was found to be unaltered after 2000 loading–unloading cycles. This is the first ever report of a robust elastomeric system with such high electrical conductivity where all the basic ingredients used were selected from well-known commercially available raw materials of rubber industry. This work directly manifests an industrially viable method for preparing high-performance elastic conductors that can be utilized in robust and flexible applications.
Invented by Charles Goodyear, chemical cross-linking of rubbers by sulfur vulcanization is the only method by which modern automobile tires are manufactured. The formation of these cross-linked ...network structures leads to highly elastic properties, which substantially reduces the viscous properties of these materials. Here, we describe a simple approach to converting commercially available and widely used bromobutyl rubber (BIIR) into a highly elastic material with extraordinary self-healing properties without using conventional cross-linking or vulcanising agents. Transformation of the bromine functionalities of BIIR into ionic imidazolium bromide groups results in the formation of reversible ionic associates that exhibit physical cross-linking ability. The reversibility of the ionic association facilitates the healing processes by temperature- or stress-induced rearrangements, thereby enabling a fully cut sample to retain its original properties after application of the self-healing process. Other mechanical properties, such as the elastic modulus, tensile strength, ductility, and hysteresis loss, were found to be superior to those of conventionally sulfur-cured BIIR. This simple and easy approach to preparing a commercial rubber with self-healing properties offers unique development opportunities in the field of highly engineered materials, such as tires, for which safety, performance, and longer fatigue life are crucial factors.
The overall mechanical performance of ionic elastomers, such as carboxylated nitrile rubber (XNBR), is largely governed by ionic clusters formed during the cross-linking of the elastomers with zinc ...oxide. These ionic aggregates promote microphase separation and show additional high-temperature relaxation behavior in dynamic mechanical analysis. In this study, the nature of these ionic aggregates is explored for the first time. We find that some zinc-containing compounds, such as zinc–aluminum-layered double hydroxide and zinc chloride, do not exhibit any extra high-temperature dynamic mechanical relaxation processes, although ionic cross-linking reactions with XNBR occur with all of these zinc compounds. Detailed analysis by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and dynamic mechanical analysis revealed that this high-temperature relaxation behavior does not originate from ionic cross-linking but is associated with the formation of an additional zinc-enriched polymer phase that arises due to reactions between carboxylic groups and zinc oxide. Infrared spectroscopic investigation indicates further that a tetrahedrally coordinated complex facilitates the formation of a zinc–carboxylic polymeric network. Clear microphase separation of the ionic polymer in the elastomer could be directly visualized by transmission electron microscopy for the first time.
In order to overcome the capacity limitations of current lightwave systems based on the single-mode optical fiber, massively parallel transmission in the spatial domain space-division multiplexing ...(SDM) supported by extended parallelism in the frequency domain (ultrawideband (UWB) systems) must be used. This article reviews key aspects of parallel transmission systems as the only significant capacity scaling option going forward and discusses the various tradeoffs on an architectural level and a hardware integration level. In doing so, this article also serves as an introduction to the more detailed accounts of fiber-optic systems and their future scaling within this Special Issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE.
Conductive polymer composites for use as stretchable strain sensors have recently been developed for use in wearable electronic devices capable of detecting various stimuli such as human body motion. ...In this work, we report the development of a flexible strain sensor based on conductive thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) by the incorporation of conductive carbon black (CCB). By adopting special processing conditions, the percolation threshold of the CCB could be minimized to a value as low as ~4 wt% as compared to a value of 10 wt% for conventional TPV. Under static and cyclic loading, the strain sensing behavior of the conductive TPV depended on the morphology and filler content. The result also revealed that interconnected TPV exhibited superior piezoresistive characteristics with good sensitivity. Therefore, the good strain sensing performance of this conductive TPV can be considered as a promising material for use in wearable human-motion and wearable strain sensors.
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