Materials Classification and Properties Polymers and Composites

What are Polymers?

Polymers are generally organic compounds based upon carbon and hydrogen. They are very large molecular structures. Usually they are low density and are not stable at high temperatures. There are both naturally occurring and synthetic polymers

Examples of Polymers
Natural: proteins, starches, cellulose, and latex Synthetic: polyethylene, polyvinylchloride (PVC), polypropylene, polystyrene, Teflon, Kevlar, and Nylon

Polymer

http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/polymers.htm

Polymer Structure

Polymer Structure

Polystyrene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene

Linear Polymer Structure

Microwaveable food containers, Dacron carpets and Kevlar ropes

Branched Polymer Structure

Soft, flexible shampoo bottles and milk jugs

Cross-Linked Polymer Structure

Car tires and bowling balls

Amorphous polymer structure

Amorphous - these are plastics where the polymer chains have no well defined order in either the solid or liquid states.

Crystalline polymer structure

Crystalline - these are plastics where a well defined crystal structure forms. This shows the ordered regions (crystallites) embedded in an amorphous matrix.

Polymers

Polymer Glass Transition

A polarizer converts an unpolarized beam into one with a single linear polarization

A polarizer converts an unpolarized beam into one with a single linear polarization. During manufacture, the PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) polymer chains are stretched such that they form an array of aligned, linear molecules in the material. An iodine dopant in the PVA attaches to the PVA molecules and makes them conducting along the length of the chains. Light polarized parallel to the chains is absorbed, and light polarized perpendicular to the chains is transmitted.

Glasses
Imagine what would happen if you cooled a liquid until it became so viscous that it was rigid and yet it lacked any of the long-range order that characterizes solids. You would have something known as a glass. Glasses have three characteristics that make them more closely resemble "frozen liquids" than crystalline solids. First, there is no long-range order. Second, there are numerous empty sites or vacancies. Finally, glasses don't contain planes of atoms

Glass Transition Temperature

What are Composites?

Composite materials (or composites for short) are engineering materials made from two or more components. One component is often a strong fiber such as fiberglass, quartz, Kevlar, or carbon fiber that gives the material its tensile strength. The second component (called a matrix) is often a resin such as polyester, or epoxy that binds the fibers together, transferring load from broken fibers to unbroken ones and between fibers that are not oriented along lines of tension.

Examples of Composites
Composites consist of more than one material type. Fiberglass, a combination of glass and a polymer, is an example. Concrete and plywood are other familiar composites. Many new combinations include ceramic fibers in metal or polymer matrix like Carbon Fiber Composites.

Factors in Creating Composites

Fiber Reinforced Composites

Random fiber (short fiber) reinforced composites

Continuous fiber (long fiber) reinforced composites

Particle Reinforced Composites

Particles as the reinforcement (Particulate composites): Flat flakes as the reinforcement (Flake composites):

Carbon Nanotube Composite

A field-emission SEM image of the fracture surface at the broken end of a poloycarbonate composite loaded at 1wt% with Zyvex processed SWNTs. The SWNTs appear here as white fibers retained in the matrix. Click here for the application note.

Nanocarbon
Properties & Application
Electrical Mechanical Thermal Storage

Bonding

Graphite sp2

Diamond sp3

Fullerenes
Discovered in 1985
- Nobel prize Chemistry 1996, Curl, Kroto, and Smalley

C60, 32 facets (12 pentagons and 20 hexagons) also 70, 76 and 84.

Epcot center, Paris

~1 nm

Architect: R. Buckminster Fuller

Fullerenes
Symmetric shape
lubricant

Large surface area

catalyst

High temperature (~750oC) High pressure Hollow

caging particles

Fullerenes
Chemically stable as graphite Crystal by weak van der Waals force Superconductivity
- K3C60: 19.2 K - RbCs2C60: 33 K

Kittel, Introduction to Solid State Physics, 7the ed. 1996.

Carbon Nanotubes

Like graphite but all coiled up Typically 10 Angstroms in diameter Can be electrically conductive or semiconducting SWNT and MWNT
Transistors, heat sinks, hydrogen storage Courtesy of and Copyright Professor Charles M. Lieber Group

Nanotubes

"armchair

"zigzag"

"spiral"

The electrical properties of nanotubes can change, depending on their molecular structure. The "armchair" type has the characteristics of a metal; the "zigzag" type has properties that change depending on the tube diameter (a third have the characteristics of a metal and the rest those of a semiconductor); the "spiral" type has the characteristics of a semiconductor.

Nanotube Properties
"armchair

"zigzag"

"spiral"

http://nanotech-now.com/nanotube-buckyball-sites.htm

Nanotube

Nanotube
Current capacity
Carbon nanotube 1 GAmps / cm2 Copper wire 1 MAmps / cm2

Heat transmission
Comparable to pure diamond (3320 W / m.K)

Temperature stability
Carbon nanotube 750 oC (in air) Metal wires in microchips 600 1000 oC

Caging
May change electrical properties sensor

Nanotube
High aspect ratio: Length: typical few m

length > 1000 diameter

quasi 1D solid

Diameter: as low as 1 nm SWCNT 1.9 nm

Zheng et al. Nature Materials 3 (2004) 673.

Nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes are the strongest known material.
Young Modulus (stiffness):
Carbon nanotubes Carbon fibers High strength steel 1250 GPa 425 GPa (max.) 200 GPa

Tensile strength (breaking strength)

Carbon nanotubes Carbon fibers 11- 63 GPa 3.5 - 6 GPa

High strength steel Elongation to failure : ~ ~ 2 GPa % 20-30

Density:
Carbon nanotube (SW) 1.33 1.40 gram / cm3 Aluminium 2.7 gram / cm3

www.nanooze.org

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0825_050825_spaceelevator.html

www.nanotech-now.com/

www.enterprisemission.com

Nanocarbon Summary
Nanocarbon
- fullerenes - tubes - most symmetrical - strongest

Properties
- electrical, mechanical, thermal, storage, caging

Applications
- composites, transistors, hydrogen storage, drug delivery