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Interfacial
Tension in SCF (CO2) Assisted Polymer Blending Process
The
production of polymers is a $300 billion a year industry. Polymer blends
constitute over 30% wt.% of polymer consumption and with an annual growth of 9%,
which is four times growth of the plastic industry as a whole. Current challenge
for the polymer blends industry lies in two aspects: the first is to improve the
production quality; the second is to minimize the environmental impact. The Supercritical
Fluid Technology (SCF) seems to be a promising technology to address
this issue because of its non-toxic nature and its transport properties.
Currently much
research has been focus on the viscosity influence on the morphology of polymer
blending process. However very limited research has been done on the interfacial
tension in the SCF (CO2) assisted polymer-blending process due to the difficulty
of high pressure and temperature. Since the interfacial tension between
immiscible polymers plays a very important role in the morphology development and
thus mechanical
properties of the blends, the measurement of polymer-polymer interfacial tension is of great
importance for understanding and controlling the polymer blending process.
The research is focused on the following aspects:
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Implementing the technique for measuring
the interfacial tension between polymer blends under high pressure and
temperature.
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Studying the dependence of interfacial tension on the
solubility of SCF(CO2), temperature and pressure.
-
Providing
fundamentals for the SCF(CO2) assisted
polymer-blending process.
For
more detail, please refer here!( Still under Revising) ( Research
proposal Research
Equipment Experimental results)
- Former
research interests:
Hydrodynamics and Mass Transfer
Enhancement in the Extraction Columns
- Hydrodynamics in a 150mm CDPSE (Coalescence--Dispersion Pulsed
Sieved Plate Extraction Column) The drop coalescence and breakage in the entire
column are studied.
- Mass transfer enhancement in the new structured CDPSE--Due to the
periodical coalescence and breakage of dispersed phase, mass transfer is
greatly enhanced comparing with the PSE (the Standard Pulsed Sieved
Plate Extraction Column).
- New dynamic tracer method to study the mass transfer and axial
dispersion in the large diameter Extraction columns.
- Modeling of the fluid dynamics and mass transfer characteristics in the CDPSE.
Axial Mixing Characters in the
Turbulent Fluidized Bed
- Hydrodynamics in High Velocity Turbulent fluidized beds -- Transient solids fraction
was studied by optical fiber sensity
probe to measure axial and radial solids fraction in a 500 mm
Diameter bed.
- Gas mixing in turbulent fluidized beds--Gas
tracer technique was used to measure axial and radial gas dispersion
coefficients in a 500 mm Diameter bed.
- Design of gas distributor to reduce the axial gas mixing in the
turbulent fluidized bed.
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