Plant Oil-Based Acrylic Latexes towards Multisubstrate Bonding Adhesives Applications.

To investigate the utility of acrylic monomers from various plant oils in adhesives manufacturing, 25-45 wt. % of high oleic soybean oil-based monomer (HOSBM) was copolymerized in a miniemulsion with commercially applied butyl acrylate (BA), methyl methacrylate (MMA), or styrene (St). The compositions of the resulting ternary latex copolymers were varied in terms of both "soft" (HOSBM, BA) and "rigid" (MMA or St) macromolecular fragments, while total monomer conversion and molecular weight of copolymers were determined after synthesis. For most latexes, results indicated the presence of lower and higher molecular weight fractions, which is beneficial for the material adhesive performance. To correlate surface properties and adhesive performance of HOSBM-based copolymer latexes, contact angle hysteresis (using water as a contact liquid) for each latex-substrate pair was first determined. The data showed that plant oil-based latexes exhibit a clear ability to spread and adhere once applied on the surface of materials differing by polarities, such as semicrystalline polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), bleached paperboard (uncoated), and tops coated with a clay mineral paperboard. The effectiveness of plant oil-based ternary latexes as adhesives was demonstrated on PET to PP and coated to uncoated paperboard substrates. As a result, the latexes with high biobased content developed in this study provide promising adhesive performance, causing substrate failure instead of cohesive/adhesive break in many experiments.

Fabrication of 1D-Nanofiber/Fe2O3 Composites with Tailored Magnetic Properties.

A novel flexible electrospun nanofiber/γ-Fe2O3 composite has been obtained from suspension of γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles in polyvinylpyrolidone solution in dimethylformamide. The impedance spectroscopy of the synthesized nanofiber/γ-Fe2O3 composite was carried out. Negative magnetoresistance and giant magnetocapacitance effects, as well as phenomenon of a "negative capacitance" at room temperature were observed in magnetic field (2.75 κOe) in infra-low frequency range. The polarization properties and volt-ampere characteristics of the nanocomposite in the applied magnetic field indicate the increase in the dielectric permittivity ɛ and the emergence of spin electromotive force, which enables us to accumulate of electric energy at quantum level. A quantum-mechanical model, which explained the non-monotonous behaviour of the volt-ampere characteristic of the novel nanofiber based composite, has been suggested.