We studied the possibility of using the liquefied wood (LW) combined with melamine-formaldehyde (MF) and melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resin as an adhesive in particleboard production using ammonium formate (AF) and ammonium sulphate (AS) as a hardener. We determined the properties of LW of various synthesis formulations, the properties of different adhesive mixtures and the properties of particleboards produced by using an adhesive mixtures from LW. We found that the composition of liquefaction reagent and the ratio between wood and reagent affects the properties of LW, especially the OH number and viscosity. The value of pH in adhesive mixture decreases as the hardener and LW content increases, while gel time decreases with increasing hardener content and temperature and increases with increasing LW content. Lower pH values and shorter gel times were achieved via use of MF resin and AF. The DSC and TGA analysis showed that the addition of the hardener accelerates the curing of the adhesive mixture and increases the degree of crosslinking, while the addition of the LW delays the curing, reduces the crosslinking degree and aggravates thermal stability of cured resin. Thermal stability of the adhesive mixture is better when MF resin is used, while the type and the amount of the hardener do not have a significant effect. A composition of the adhesive mixture does not affect the thermal stability of the particleboard. FTIR analysis showed that the type and the amount of the hardener do not affect the composition of cured adhesive system, while LW increases the presence of certain functional groups. We found that up to 30% of MF or MUF resin could be substituted with LW, from which particleboards with good mechanical properties can be produced. The properties of particleboards produced with 30% of LW in an adhesive mixture improved with the use of AF hardener and MF resin. The properties of the particleboards improve with increase of the board density, amount of the adhesive mixture, press temperature and press time.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 2130825The research work focuses on a detailed characterization of poly (styrenebisoprene) (PS(PI)x) miktoarm star copolymers which were synthesized by anionic polymerization of polystyrene (PS) and polyisoprene (PI) blocks and selective chlorosilane coupling chemistry. The PS(PI)x star copolymers consist of one long PS block and different number of shorter PI blocks (x = 2, 3, 5 and 7). The PS(PI)x star copolymers differ in the length of PI block, which decreases with the number of PI arms in the star copolymer. Our aim was to determine the purity of samples and to identify exactly the constituents of individual samples. For this purpose we used a variety of separation techniques (size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), reversedphase liquidadsorption chromatography (RP-LAC) and two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC), and characterization techniques (UV-MALS-RI multidetection SEC system, NMR and MALDI-TOF MS). The results show that all PS(PI)x samples contain byproducts, i.e., the homo-PS and homo-PI in minor amounts and the high-molar-mass species. The major constituent of the PS(PI)2 sample is the one with the predicted structure, whereas, the major components of other PS(PI)x (x = 3, 5 and 7) samples are the stars, containing smaller number of PI arms than predicted from the functionalities of chlorosilane coupling agents. In this work we demonstrated that the combination of different separation and characterization techniques is necessary for a thorough determination of the molar mass, the chain architecture and the chemical composition of miktoarm star copolymers with complex architecture.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 5431578The present invention relates to novel polymers, which exhibit improved association with protein drugs and enable the formation of nanoparticles (NPs) with high protein loading.
F.06 Development of a new product
Lecture of Dr. Davis Pahovnik at: "King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal 239556900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during his Post doc position. KCC web site: http://kcc.kaust.edu.sa/Pages/Home.aspx
B.05 Guest lecturer at an institute/university
COBISS.SI-ID: 5432090Proceedings with 307 pages contain abstracts of plenary, keynote and short lectures as well as posters which were presented at the conference ASPM 2013 in Bled, 3.-5. 4. 2013. The 3rd Austrian - Slovenian Polymer Conference - ASPM 2013, 3 - 5 April 2013, Golf Hotel Bled hosted 250 participants from 35 countries. The conference was held under the auspices of the European Polymer Federation (EPF) and the Association of European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS) and in collaboration with the Central and East European Polymer Network (CEEPN). It was organized by the Centre of Excellence for Polymer Materials and Technologies (CO PoliMaT), Polymer Competence Center Leoben (PCCL), National Institute of Chemistry and Slovenian Chemical Society. More than 200 scientists, researchers, students, industry representatives and public institutions contributed to high quality scientific program, consisting of three plenary speakers: Ann-Christine Albertsson (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden ), Alamgir Karim (College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering at The University of Akron, USA ), and Gerhard Wegner (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany) and 15 sectional lecturers: Matthew L. Becker, Michael R. Buchmeiser, Andrzej Dworak , Todd Emrick , Lucia Gardossi , Dieter P. Gruber , Sabine Hild , Igor Lacík , Robert Liska , Matthew Praprotnik , Coleen Pugh , Mark D. Souček , Gregor Trimmel and Ema Zagar . The latest research achievements were presented by 74 oral presentations and 110 posters in eleven research fields of polymer science and polymer engineering.
C.01 Editorial board of a foreign/international collection of papers/book
COBISS.SI-ID: 266351872