Summary: A common bottleneck in combinatorial materials science occurs at the characterization stage. Here we discuss an instrument for the rapid measurement of mechanical properties of polymer libraries, which allows for 96 simultaneous measurements to be taken under a variety of conditions. For example, plateau moduli and glass transition temperatures can be measured by ramping temperature while applying a deformation at a constant amplitude and frequency, much like a conventional DMTA.magnified image

Sodium octacosanoate (NaC 28-32 ) is commonly used as a nucleating agent in polyester and polyamide formulations. In this work, the effect of adding this agent to three chemically identical thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs), but with distinct molecular weights, was addressed, focusing on the study of the crystallization phenomenon. The modified Avrami and Avrami-Ozawa kinetic models were applied to the isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization processes, respectively, and both indicated faster crystallization when the nucleating agent was used, with an increase in temperature and rate of crystallization of the TPU. Such effect was partly attributed to the formation of a larger number of crystallization nuclei in comparison to the neat TPU.

The precise determination of the elastic modulus of metallic foils is non-trivial. • Multiple elastic loadingunloading cycles led to reproducible and accurate determination compared to monotonic testing. • Results were interpreted using Electron Backscatter Diffraction and X-Ray Diffraction methods. • Foil cross sections were prepared and analysed.