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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Fabrication And Testing Of Arabinan Cellulose Nanocomposites, Ross Johnson, Austin Rosso, Nick Semansky
Fabrication And Testing Of Arabinan Cellulose Nanocomposites, Ross Johnson, Austin Rosso, Nick Semansky
Materials Engineering
Inspired by the structure and composition of cactus spines found in nature, arabinan-cellulose nanocomposites were fabricated into thin films and tested for mechanical stiffness. The composites consisted of varying amounts of nanocrystalline cellulose reinforcement suspended in an arabinan matrix. Both materials are polysaccharides and are known to be biodegradable and food safe. The thin film samples were tensile tested using a dynamic mechanical analysis machine both as-cast and after a heat-treatment. The heat treatment of the arabinan itself resulted in an order of magnitude increase in stiffness, while the cellulose reinforced composites increased roughly six fold. The arabinan-50 wt% cellulose …
Strength Testing And Material Characterization Of Cactus Spines, Mary Cooper, Jeff Goldstein, Thomas Tarlton
Strength Testing And Material Characterization Of Cactus Spines, Mary Cooper, Jeff Goldstein, Thomas Tarlton
Materials Engineering
Twelve different species of cactus spines from 6 different genera were collected from living specimens and maintained in a dry storage environment. Spines from each species underwent 3-point bend testing, XRD testing, and SEM imaging. XRD analysis was used to verify the presence of cellulose whisker like nanocrystals and to calculate the percent crystallinity of each spine. SEM images were captured of fracture surfaces at viewing angles of 90° and 45° relative to the fracture surface, with magnifications ranging between 150x and 4,000x. A total of six spines from each species were tested in three point bending using a high-resolution …
Determining An Inorganic Mineralization Process To Inhibit Organic Degradation And Preserve The Dimensional Stability Of Bamboo, Eric Hahn
Materials Engineering
Bamboo is a renewable natural composite with potential as both a construction and synthesis material. The components of bamboo are cellulosic vascular bundles imbedded within a lignin matrix that create a porous hierarchical structure. This structure has low density while maintaining high strength, toughness, and elasticity, but is susceptible to organic decay. A study was performed to evaluate the effect of varying bamboo culm age (1-3 years) and density (0.72-1.05 g/cm3) on the ability to control inorganic mineral precipitation to prevent degradation and preserve dimensional stability of the organic matrix. Internodal culm samples were immersed in solutions of …
Processing Pdms Gecko Tape Using Isopore Filters And Silicon Wafer Templates, Boris Luu
Processing Pdms Gecko Tape Using Isopore Filters And Silicon Wafer Templates, Boris Luu
Materials Engineering
Gecko tape was processed through nanomolding involving two types of templates. One template was a Millapore Isopore polycarbonate membrane filter and the other template was an n-type silicon wafer processed to include four different pore diameters. These pore diameters were 20, 40, 80, and 160 microns. AutoCAD was used to design to a mask to be used later during photolithography. Two n-type wafers were sputtered with aluminum, underwent photolithography, and then etched using reactive ion etching. A template was placed into a Petri dish and Sylgard 184 polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was poured on the template. Once the PDMS cured, the 1 …