Work

Metal Forging Inspired Chain-Combing Processing Strategy for Engineering Plastic’s Properties Enhancement

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Enhancing engineering plastics’ mechanical properties could improve their service as structural-functional materials in our daily life. Inspired by metal forging, this work offers a simple and effective surface mechanical treatment (SMT) strategy, which can be effectively applied in processing various kinds of engineering plastics, e.g., PA66, PEEK, POM and PPS, to enhance their mechanical properties and surface hardness. Moreover, the SMT method can entirely avoid the downsides of the conventional polymer processing approach, such as complicated processing procedures, demanding processing conditions, high energy consumption, etc. Herein, PA66 is chosen as a model-material for showing the outcome of this SMT method. Tensile tests showed that the Young Modulus of SMTed samples would have an 88.39% increment and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) would increase by 28.37%. The modulus within the localized SMTed surface layer could reach about 10GPa, which is about 10 times that of the pristine sample. The Vickers Hardness within the localized SMTed surface layer would increase by 43.29% and the crystallinity would rise by about 10% compared with the untreated region. For better investigating the ternary relationship between the SMT method, PA66’s molecular structure and PA66 properties, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, including force field molecular dynamics (FFMD) and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) are also conducted. MD simulations combined with versatile structural characterizations provide evidence for revealing the mechanism of this SMT method to be like a chain-combing procedure, resulting in the polymer’s molecular morphology being changed microscopically and mechanical properties being enhanced macroscopically.

Source: Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research

DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.4c02984