Tough and circular glass fiber composites a tailored dynamic boronic ester interface.

Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites are valued for their strength and cost-effectiveness. However, traditional GFRPs often face challenges for end-of-life recycling due to their non-depolymerizable thermoset matrices, and long-term performance due to inadequate interfacial adhesion, which can lead to fiber-matrix delamination. Here, we have designed dynamic fiber-matrix interfaces to allow tough and closed-loop recyclable GFRPs by utilizing a vitrimer, derived from upcycled polystyrene--poly(ethylene--butylene)--polystyrene (SEBS) with boronic ester (S-Bpin) and amine-based diol crosslinker.

An experimental toolbox for the physical characterization of thermal insulating polymeric foams.

Recent advancements in polymer science and manufacturing technologies triggered new developments of porous materials used for mitigating heat losses, such as thermal insulating polymeric foams. The major bottleneck in the optimization of these products, however, remains the absence of analytical methods able to scrutinize their large design space reasonably quickly and cost-effectively. This manuscript targets the paucity of data for polymeric foams by illustrating, at a proof-of-principle level, that several well-established analytical methods including optical microscopy, pycnometry, dielectric spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and nuclear magnetic resonance can be exploited for an extensive, yet logistically efficient, characterization of these materials.

Dielectric and Shear-Mechanical "Humps" in the Nonlinear Response of Polar Glassformers.

Many glassformers display electrorheological effects and a pronounced maximum in their frequency dependent nonlinear dielectric response. The latter so-called "hump" feature was often linked to correlated-particle motions and, so far, was not explored in the large-perturbation mechanical response of viscous liquids. To first clarify the electro-viscoelastic coupling in the linear domain, using the modified Gemant, DiMarzio, and Bishop model, it is demonstrated how the small-amplitude shear mechanical response of -methoxy-PC, a derivative of propylene carbonate, can be related to its complex dielectric permittivity.

What is the origin of slow relaxation modes in highly viscous ionic liquids?

Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) are molten salts consisting entirely of ions and have over the past decades gained increased interest due to their high potential in applications. These structurally complex systems often display multiple relaxation modes in the response functions at lower frequencies, hinting to complex underlying mechanisms. While the existence of these multimodal spectra in the shear mechanical, dielectric, and light scattering response of RTILs has been confirmed multiple times, controversy still surrounds the origin.

Nonlinear susceptibilities and higher-order responses related to physical aging: Wiener-Volterra approach and extended Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan models.

Large-amplitude thermal excursions imposed on deeply supercooled liquids modulate the nonlinear time evolution of their structural rearrangements. The consequent aftereffects are treated within a Wiener-Volterra expansion in laboratory time that allows one to calculate the associated physical-aging and thermal response functions. These responses and the corresponding higher-harmonic susceptibilities are illustrated using calculations based on the Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan (TNM) model.