Thermal Stability and Flammability of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber-Based (SBR) Ceramifiable Composites
Ceramifiable styrene-butadiene (SBR)-based composites containing low-softening-point-temperature glassy frit promoting ceramification, precipitated silica, one of four thermally stable refractory fillers (halloysite, calcined kaolin, mica or wollastonite) and a sulfur-based curing system were prepared. Kinetics of vulcanization and basic mechanical properties were analyzed and added as Supplementary Materials. Combustibility of the composites was measured by means of cone calorimetry. Their thermal properties were analyzed by means of thermogravimetry and specific heat capacity determination. Activation energy of thermal decomposition was calculated using the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method. Finally, compression strength of the composites after ceramification was measured and their micromorphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. The addition of a ceramification-facilitating system resulted in the lowering of combustibility and significant improvement of the thermal stability of the composites. Moreover, the compression strength of the mineral structure formed after ceramification is considerably high. The most promising refractory fillers for SBR-based ceramifiable composites are mica and halloysite.
Calcium and aluminium-based fillers as flame-retardant additives in silicone matrices II. Analyses on composite residues from an industrial-based pyrolysis test
The second part of this series, devoted to the study of model fire-resistant silicone composites filled with calcium or aluminium-based material which would meet cable industry specifications, focuses on residues obtained after extreme pyrolysis adapted from the NFC 32070 CR1 French standard. Several methods of analysis (among them ESEM, EDX, XRD, Hg pycnometer, and compression tests) have been carried out in order to investigate the microstructure, volume variation, and compression behaviour of silicone composite residues. Calcium-based fillers produced more cohesive residues than aluminium-based fillers. Indeed, the co-crystallisation taking place during pyrolysis, as shown in the first part of this series (Hamdani, S. et al., Polym Degrad Stab, 2010, 95, 1911–1919), produced a dense and strong residue. The strong internal porosity and absence of new crystal formation in residues of aluminium-based filled composites resulted in their low compressive resistance. In addition, water release during the degradation of the latter fillers, favoured residue expansion, high interior porosity and thus weak compression resistance.
Unity Identity Text Self
Abstract Understanding the receptivity of literature, how one work admits many readers, begins with an analogy: unity is to text as identity is to self. Unity here means the way all a text’s features can be related through one central theme. Identity describes a person’s sameness within different behaviors as variations on one identity theme (Lichtenstein). To find unity or identity, however, the interpreter himself plays a behavioral variation on his identity theme. In interpreting, his identity re-creates itself as he shapes the text to match his characteristic defenses, fantasies, and coherences. Thus, what a poet says about fictional, political, or scientific texts expresses the same identity theme as the poems he writes. To understand reading, criticism, and any knowing or making in symbols, then, we need to let go the Cartesian craving for objectivity and accept the themes in ourselves with which we construe the world—including literary works.