Self-reinforcing polymer composites

PEI with 35-95 wt% LCP, self-reinforced polymer compositions LCP fibers, tensile strength, modulus, elongation, impact strength, HDT Isayev and Swaminathan 1989... 

Hare C (Ed.) (2010) Self reinforced polymer composites with impact Technical bulletin, www.espritproject.eu... 

Rein D M, Vaykhansky L, Khalfin R L and Cohen Y (2002) Controlling the properties of singlepolymer composites by surface melting of the reinforcing fibers, Polym Adv Technol 13 1046-1054. Hine P J, Ey R H and Ward I M (2008) The use of interleaved films for optimising the production and properties of hot compacted, self reinforced polymer composites, Compos Sci Technol 68 1413-1421. 

Hine P J, OUey R H and Ward 1M (2008) The use of interleaved films for optimising the production and properties of hot-compacted, self reinforced polymer composites. Compos Sci Technol 68 1413-1421. 

Alternative routes, due to environmental awareness and increasing interest in sustainable material concepts, have led to the development of bio- and green composites for structural composite applications, the so-called all-polymer composites or self-reinforced polymer composites . These new materials promise to overcome the critical problem of fiber-matrix adhesion in biocomposites by using chemically similar or identical cellulose materials for both matrix and reinforcement and are designated as all-cellulose composites [39, 40]. 

Gao C, Yu L, Liu H, Chen L (2012) Development of self-reinforced polymer composites. Prog Polym Sci 37 767-780... 

Technology and Development of Self-Reinforced Polymer Composites... 

One recurring feature in the majority of published literature describing self-reinforced polymer composites is the description of how to overcome the inherent... 

PE fibre embedded in a matrix of a similar material. Different PE grades with as wide as possible a difference in molecular weight were used to maximize the difference in melting temperature between the fibre and the matrix and so ease the incorporation of the fibre into the matrix. The use of similar polymers with different melting temperatures to achieve melting of one phase to yield a matrix material, while retention of another phase to yield a fibrous reinforcement became a recurring feature in most of the literature that was subsequently pubhshed to describe the development of self-reinforced polymer composites. 

As described earlier, the main prerequisite for the creation of high performance self-reinforced polymer composites is a thermoplastic polymer fibre with the necessary mechanical properties to make the creation of the final composites attractive. Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibres with veiy high mechanical properties, produced by gel spinning, became commercially... 

Fig. 3 Consolidation of a self-reinforced polymer composite from a stacked arrangement of fibres dark grey reinforcement phase) and polymer films light grey matrix phase). The fibres are shown normal to the plane of the page, and many layers can be stacked with a suitable number of film plies between layers a). On the application of heat and pressure the polymer films soften and flow between the fibres. Upon cooling, these films become the matrix phase of the composite, while the fibres withstand processing without significant degradation of mechanical properties, and so remain as the reinforcement phase of the composite b). The technique is equally applicable to any planar arrangement of fibres such as woven fabrics and random fibre mats...

V aisman et al. [52] reported the effect of bromination of the surface of commercial UHMWPE fibres in order to polarise the surface of the fibres. This bromination process was shown to result in an increase in the degree of order of the transcrystalline zone when these fibres were combined with HDPE to produce a self-reinforced polymer model composite. While these pubUcations report the use of different types of PE to create self-reinforced polymer composites, UHMWPE fibres have also been combined with ethylene-based copolymers. Kazanci et al. [53, 54] reported the creation of commercial UHMWPE fibre-reinforced ethylene-butene copolymers. Filament wormd structiues were produced, with fibre volume fractions of 65%, with the suggestirm of a potential application for these materials in unspecified medical devices. 

As with the numerous groups who have applied fibre and film stacking techniques to produce self-reinforced polymer composites based on PE, the fibre and film stacking technique was also applied to PP-based systems, as reported by Kitayama et al. [59, 60]. The authors report the production of a unidirectional composite by consolidating PP multifilament yams between films of an ethylene-propylene random copolymer. This film was reported to have a broad melting behaviour with an endothermic melting peak at 130 °C, and so allowed for composite... 

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