Acquisition of Instruments for Polymer Fiber Characterization and Student Training

这笔赠款用于购买三种旨在改善聚合物纤维制造和表征的仪器：差示扫描量热仪（DSC），拉伸试验机（TT）和红外摄像机（IRC）。这三种仪器允许在线（当纤维形成时）和离线检查纤维的制造。将利用这些仪器的项目包括碳纳米管与各种热塑性聚合物混合并拉伸成纤维，以增加最终产品的模量和韧性。DSC测量纳米管如何影响产品的结晶度和玻璃化转变。TT测量产品的机械性能，作为不同拉伸速率和温度的函数。IRC允许在纤维形成过程中进行在线温度测量;这些知识用于数学建模和改进纤维形成过程。这三种仪器也将用于其他几个活跃的项目，包括在熔喷过程中高速形成非织造纤维网。另一个非常活跃的领域涉及纤维基复合材料，其使用称为胶束聚合的填料改性技术; DSC和TT都是这项工作的组成部分。这一建议的更广泛影响主要与改善学生教育有关。有了新的仪器，学生将与他们将在以后的职业生涯中接触的仪器。一年中有几名本科生在实验室工作。目前，这些本科生中有一半以上是代表性不足的学生（女性，西班牙裔和非洲裔美国人）。学生参加大学的学术/工业纤维联盟，在会议上做口头报告，并担任论文的合著者。该仪器将用于学生培训和课堂演示。该提案还将允许扩大俄克拉荷马州大学现有的学术/工业界面。如上所述，该大学有一个学术/工业联盟，用于开发非织造纤维技术。十多年来，该组织一直得到许多财富500强公司的支持（例如，3 M、杜邦和宝洁。

This grant is for the purchase of three instruments designed to improve the fabrication and characterization of polymer fibers: a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), a tensile tester (TT) and an infrared camera (IRC). These three instruments allow examination of the fabrication of fibers both on-line (as the fiber is being formed) and off-line. Projects that will utilize these instruments include carbon nanotubes that are mixed with a variety of thermoplastic polymers and drawn into fibers in order to increase the modulus and tenacity of the final product. The DSC measures how the nanotubes affect the crystallinity and glass transition of the product. The TT measures the mechanical properties of the product as a function of different draw rates and temperatures. The IRC permits on-line temperature measurements during the formation of the fibers; such knowledge is used to mathematically model and improve the fiber formation process. The three instruments will also be used in several other active projects involving the high speed formation of nonwoven webs of fiber during the process known as melt blowing. Another very active area involves fiber-based composites that use a filler modification technique termed admicellar polymerization; both the DSC and TT are integral to this work. The broader impacts of this proposal are primarily related to improved student education. With the new instruments, the students will work with instrumentation that they will contact in their subsequent careers. Several undergraduates are employed in the laboratory during the year. Presently, more than half of these undergraduates are under-represented students (women, Hispanics, and African-Americans). The students participate in the academic/industrial fiber consortium at the university, give oral presentations at conferences, and act as coauthors on papers. The instrumentation will be used in the training of students and in classroom demonstrations. This proposal will also allow the expansion of the academic/industrial interface that exists at the University of Oklahoma. As alluded to above, the university has an academic/industrial consortium for the development of nonwoven fiber technology. For more than a decade this organization has been supported by a number of Fortune 500 companies (e.g., 3M, DuPont and Procter & Gamble.