It is commonly acknowledged that polymer composites in service are often subjected to not only intricate mechanical loads but also harsh environmental conditions. The mechanical and thermal properties of five particular composites are explored here. The composites are composed of laminates of glass cloth type "E" sheet infilled with a duroplastic matrix.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsufficient homogeneity is one of the pressing problems in nanocomposites' production as it largely impairs the properties of materials with relatively high filler concentration. Within this work, it is demonstrated how selected mixing techniques (magnetic mixer stirring, calendaring and microfluidization) affect filler distribution in poly(dimethylsiloxane)-graphene based nanocomposites and, consequently, their properties. The differences were assessed via imaging and thermal techniques, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLiquid polymorphism is an intriguing phenomenon that has been found in a few single-component systems, the most famous being water. By supercooling liquid Te to more than 130 K below its melting point and performing simultaneous small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements, we observe clear maxima in its thermodynamic response functions around 615 K, suggesting the possible existence of liquid polymorphism. A close look at the underlying structural evolution shows the development of intermediate-range order upon cooling, most strongly around the thermodynamic maxima, which we attribute to bond-orientational ordering.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Crystallogr B Struct Sci Cryst Eng Mater
August 2020
The structure of calcium europium orthoborate, CaEu(BO), was determined using high-resolution powder X-ray diffraction data collected at the ID22 beamline (ESRF) under ambient conditions, as well as at high temperature. Rietveld refinement allowed determination of the lattice constants and structural details, including the Ca/Eu ratios at the three cationic sites and their evolution with temperature. Clear thermal expansion anisotropy was found, and slope changes of lattice-constant dependencies on temperature were observed at 923 K.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNumber of heterotrophic bacteria ability to decompose organic phosphorus compounds and the level of phosphatase activity in the sand of two marine beaches (southern coast of the Baltic Sea) differing in the level of anthropopressure were studied. The study showed that the number of bacteria and level phosphatase activity were higher in the sand of the beach subjected to stronger anthropopressure. In both studied beaches bacteria hydrolysing DNA were the most numerous (92.
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