Publications related to Forensic polymer engineering

Extraction and controlled functionalization of lignin for materials applications

Lignin is a renewable aromatic polymer that due to its abundance and unique chemical structure is a promising candidate to replace aromatic materials that are currently sourced from fossil oil. The same structure of lignin poses however drawbacks for its v ...

EPFL2022

Biodegradation and Antimicrobial Properties of Zinc Oxide-Polymer Composite Materials for Urinary Stent Applications

Lorenzo Lucherini

Research advancements in the field of urinary stents have mainly been in the selection of materials and coatings to address commonly faced problems of encrustation and bacterial adhesion. In this study, polylactic acid (PLA) and polypropylene (PP) were eva ...

2020

Influence of cracking and rough surface properties on the transfer of forces in cracked concrete

Aurelio Muttoni, Miguel Fernández Ruiz, Max Tirassa

Aggregate interlocking is acknowledged as one of the most significant actions transferring shear forces in cracked concrete structures and has been investigated for several decades. Despite the many experimental programmes and previous efforts to develop m ...

2020

UV and IR Spectroscopy of Transition Metal–Crown Ether Complexes in the Gas Phase: Mn2+(benzo-15-crown-5)(H2O)0–2

Thomas Rizzo, Yoshiya Inokuchi

Ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) and IR–UV double-resonance spectroscopy are performed for bare and microhydrated complexes of Mn2+(benzo-15-crown-5), Mn2+(B15C5)(H2O)n (n = 0–2), under cold (∼10 K) gas-phase conditions. Density functional theory (DFT) ...

2019

Combining ultra-high resolution ion-mobility spectrometry with cryogenic IR spectroscopy for the study of biomolecular ions

Thomas Rizzo, Ahmed Ben Faleh, Stephan Warnke, Robert Paul Pellegrinelli, Natalia Yalovenko

Double-resonance spectroscopic schemes in combination with cryogenic ion traps are the go-to techniques when isomer-specific high-resolution spectra are required for analysis of molecular ions. Their limitation lies in the requirement for well-resolved, is ...

2019

Experimental investigation of two-dimensional delamination in GFRP laminates

Thomas Keller, Anastasios Vassilopoulos, Aida Cameselle Molares

The 2D delamination behavior of composite laminates under quasi-static out-of-plane opening loading has been experimentally investigated. A circular embedded pre-crack was introduced in the center and at the midplane of the laminates. To investigate the ef ...

2018

Improved mechanical dispersion or use of coupling agents? Advantages and disadvantages for the properties of fluoropolymer/ceramic composites

Sara Dalle Vacche, Véronique Michaud, Yves Leterrier, Dragan Damjanovic

The aim of this work is to investigate the influence of interfacial chemistry on the properties of fluoropolymer composites, independent of effects derived from changes in morphology, in particular particle dispersion state. A comparative study of solvent ...

2018

Novel experimental design for two-dimensional delamination in FRP laminates

Thomas Keller, Anastasios Vassilopoulos, Aida Cameselle Molares

The two-dimensional (2D) delamination behavior of composite laminates under quasi-static out-of-plane opening loads has been experimentally investigated. A novel design and experimental set-up for fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminated plates with a circ ...

2018

Modeling tribocorrosion of passive metals - A review

Stefano Mischler, Shoufan Cao

Tribocorrosion is a material degradation phenomenon resulting from interactive effects between wear and corrosion. It is commonly found in engineering applications (e.g. biomedical implants and marine equipment) which involve relative motion of contacting ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2018

UV and IR Spectroscopy of Cryogenically Cooled, Lanthanide-Containing Ions in the Gas Phase

Thomas Rizzo, Yoshiya Inokuchi

We measure UV and IR spectra in the gas phase for EuOH+, EuCl+, and TbO+ ions, which are produced by an electrospray ionization source and cooled to similar to 10 K in a cold, 22-pole ion trap. The UV photodissociation (UVPD) spectra of these ions show a n ...

American Chemical Society2017

High diffusion barrier and piezoelectric nanocomposites based on polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene copolymer and hydrophobized clay

Yves Leterrier, Dragan Damjanovic, Sara Dalle Vacche, Antonia Neels, Olha Sereda, Alex Dommann

Nanocomposites based on polyvinylidene fluoride– trifluoroethylene copolymer and up to 4 vol % of hydrophobized clay nanoparticles are investigated. The structure, piezoelectric properties, and oxygen permeability of solvent cast films are analyzed before ...

Wiley-Blackwell2017

Energy dissipation and recovery in web-flange junctions of pultruded GFRP decks

Thomas Keller, Julia De Castro San Roman Fest, Sonia Yanes Armas

The energy dissipation capacity resulting from progressive cracking and the recovery after unloading of the web-flange junctions (WFJs) of a pultruded GFRP deck were experimentally investigated. Web-cantilever bending experiments up to failure were perform ...

Elsevier2016

Very high cycle fatigue tests with quenched and self-tempered reinforcement steel bars

Eugen Brühwiler, Alain Nussbaumer, Marina Rocha Pinto Portela Nunes

Investigations on the fatigue strength of steel reinforcement bars (rebars) mainly involves fatigue tests with hot rolled (HR) and cold worked (CW) steels. However, in the last few decades, HR and CW rebars were replaced by quenched and selftempered (QST) ...

Springer Verlag2016

Vibrational Signatures of Conformer-Specific Intramolecular Interactions in Protonated Tryptophan

Natalia Nagornova, Oleg Boyarkine, Aleksandr Pereverzev

Because of both experimental and computational challenges, protonated tryptophan has remained the last aromatic amino acid for which the intrinsic structures of low-energy conformers have not been unambiguously solved. The IR-IR UV hole-burning spectroscop ...

Amer Chemical Soc2016

Effect of interfacial interactions on the electromechanical response of poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene)/BaTiO3 composites and its time dependence after poling

Véronique Michaud, Yves Leterrier, Dragan Damjanovic, Sara Dalle Vacche

Solvent cast and compression molded composite films based on poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene), containing pristine and silylated BaTiO3 particles, were poled, and their electromechanical response (d(33)), their dielectric properties, and the cry ...

Elsevier2015

Physically Based Modeling of Shear Modulus-Temperature Relationship for Thermosets

Thomas Keller, Anastasios Vassilopoulos, Wei Sun

A new physically based model for the simulation of the imaginary part of the shear modulus-temperature (G ''-T) curve of thermosets is introduced in this paper. The model is based on the modification of the G ''-T equation used for thermoplastic polymers v ...

Wiley-Blackwell2015

Energy dissipation in web-flange junctions of pultruded GFRP decks

Thomas Keller, Julia De Castro San Roman Fest, Sonia Yanes Armas

The energy dissipation capacity resulting from progressive cracking of the web-flange junctions (WFJs) of a pultruded GFRP deck system was experimentally investigated. Web-cantilever bending experiments up to failure were performed on two WFJ types (IfO, I ...

2015

Temperature effects on material properties and structural response of polymer matrix composites

Wei Sun

Structural components used in civil engineering applications are often subjected to compressive loads. Unlike the tensile strength of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials, their compressive strength is resin-dominated, exhibiting lower values and more ...

EPFL2015

Solvent Effects on the Encapsulation of Divalent Ions by Benzo-18-Crown-6 and Benzo-15-Crown-5

Thomas Rizzo, Yoshiya Inokuchi

We measure UV photodissociation (UVPD) spectra of cold benzo-15-crown-5 (B15C5) and benzo-18-crown-6 (B18C6) complexes with divalent ions (M2+ = Ca2+, Sr2+, Ba2+, and Mn2+), solvated with an H2O or a CH3OH molecule: M2+·B15C5·H2O, M2+·B15C5·CH3OH, M2+·B18C ...

American Chemical Society2015

CO Desorption from a Catalytic Surface: Elucidation of the Role of Steps by Velocity-Selected Residence Time Measurements

Directly measuring the rate of a surface chemical reaction remains a challenging problem. For example, even after more than 30 years of study, there is still no agreement on the kinetic parameters for one of the simplest surface reactions: desorption of CO ...

Amer Chemical Soc2015