Shrestha S, Demchuk Z, Polo-Garzon F, Tamraparni A, Damron J, Howard D, Saito T, Sokolov A P, Hun D, Gainaru C
Buildings and Transportation Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA.
Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA.
Heliyon. 2024 Aug 10;10(16):e36074. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36074. eCollection 2024 Aug 30.
Recent advancements in polymer science and manufacturing technologies triggered new developments of porous materials used for mitigating heat losses, such as thermal insulating polymeric foams. The major bottleneck in the optimization of these products, however, remains the absence of analytical methods able to scrutinize their large design space reasonably quickly and cost-effectively. This manuscript targets the paucity of data for polymeric foams by illustrating, at a proof-of-principle level, that several well-established analytical methods including optical microscopy, pycnometry, dielectric spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and nuclear magnetic resonance can be exploited for an extensive, yet logistically efficient, characterization of these materials. The purpose of this study is thus introducing an experimental platform for the characterization of market foam products and for the development of new polymeric foams with pore sizes that are particularly relevant for industrial and residential thermal insulation. Since this work introduces several new methodologies, it may be used as a guide for both laboratory users and specialists in the field, who may further improve the herein proposed experimental concepts.
聚合物科学和制造技术的最新进展引发了用于减少热损失的多孔材料的新发展，例如隔热聚合物泡沫。然而，这些产品优化中的主要瓶颈仍然是缺乏能够以合理快速且经济高效的方式仔细研究其庞大设计空间的分析方法。本手稿针对聚合物泡沫数据的匮乏问题，通过在原理验证层面说明包括光学显微镜、比重瓶法、介电谱、热重分析和核磁共振在内的几种成熟分析方法可用于对这些材料进行广泛但在逻辑上高效的表征。因此，本研究的目的是引入一个实验平台，用于表征市场上的泡沫产品以及开发具有对工业和住宅隔热特别重要的孔径的新型聚合物泡沫。由于这项工作引入了几种新方法，它可以作为实验室用户和该领域专家的指南，他们可以进一步改进本文提出的实验概念。
