NIST/industry collaboration yields new instrumentation for monitoring nanocomposites compounding. .In collaboration with an instrument company, NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. scientists have developed on-line, real-time instrumentation for monitoring extrusion compounding of polymer/clay nanocomposites. The new instrument is a multi-functional device that addresses the need for instant characterization of the compounding process and the compounded product. The sensor device is a dielectric slit die that attaches to the end of a twin screw compounding extruder and measures the electrical, optical, rheological, and ultrasonics ultrasonics, study and application of the energy of sound waves vibrating at frequencies greater than 20,000 cycles per second, i.e., beyond the range of human hearing. properties of the compounded product. The objective is to acquire a package of data from dif-ferent sensors in order to deduce information about the microstructure mi·cro·struc·ture n. The structure of an organism or object as revealed through microscopic examination. microstructure Noun a structure on a microscopic scale, such as that of a metal or a cell of the clay filler particles, and to determine if aggregate clay has dispersed and exfoliated into small nanosize particles within the polymer matrix. This information is important because it has been established that a few percent of clay mixed into the polymer can greatly enhance the mechanical and fire retardant fire retardant Public health A chemical used to resist combustion, which may contain polybrominated biphenyls and antimony oxide performance of the composite if dis persion and exfoliation exfoliation /ex·fo·li·a·tion/ (eks-fo?le-a´shun) 1. a falling off in scales or layers. 2. the removal of scales or flakes from the surface of the skin. 3. of the clay occurs. The instrument project is part of a larger program to fully characterize polymer/clay nanocomposites using both on-line and off-line measurements. Off-line measurements, such as x-ray diffraction, NMR spectroscopy Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy most commonly known as NMR spectroscopy is the name given to the technique which exploits the magnetic properties of certain nuclei. This phenomenon and its origins are detailed in a separate section on Nuclear magnetic resonance. , and neutron scattering, are correlated with on-line data to give a detailed picture of the micro-and nanoscale structure of the nanocomposite. CONTACT: Anthony Bur, (301) 975- 6748; anthony.bur@nist.gov. |
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