Computational analysis of polymer molecular structure effect on nanocavities replication via injection moulding

The purpose of this work is to study how the molecular structure of a polymer affects the replication of nanocavities when injection moulding manufacturing process is used. Even though the process and geometrical factors that affect the replication of nanocavities have been studied by several author...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Pina Estany, Jordi, Garcia Granada, Andres Amador
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universitat Ramon Llull (URL)
Repositorio:DAU Arxiu Digital de la Universitat Ramon Llull
OAI Identifier:oai:dau.url.edu:20.500.14342/1092
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14342/1092
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Dinàmica de fluids
Dinàmica molecular
Nanoquímica
Computational fluid dynamics
Injection moulding
Molecular dynamics
Nanoscale simulation
Submodeling
Dinámica de fluidos computacional
Inyección de plástico
Dinámica molecular
Simulación a escala nanométrica
Submodelado
Injecció de plàstic
Simulació a escala nanomètrica
Submodelat
544
Descripción
Sumario:The purpose of this work is to study how the molecular structure of a polymer affects the replication of nanocavities when injection moulding manufacturing process is used. Even though the process and geometrical factors that affect the replication of nanocavities have been studied by several authors, the effect of the polymer molecular structure on the injection result is less studied. In order to study through simulation the molecular structure influence, Computational Fluid Dynamics methods are not valid because they consider the matter a continuum. This limitation is overcome by means of Molecular Dynamics simulation method, in which each atom movement is tracked in a sort of nbody problem. With a self-made model, the effect of degree of polymerization and tacticity are successfully quantified in the replication of nanocavities of down to 2·2nm2. It is concluded that the degree of polymerization has a negative effect on the nanocavity replication due to the easier entanglement of longer polymer chains. Concerning the tacticity effect, it is found out that syndiotactic polystyrene replicates less than atactic or isotactic polystyrenes because of the larger entanglement of the phenyl groups when in alternate positions along the chain.