PMID- 33265957
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20201226
IS  - 2073-4360 (Electronic)
IS  - 2073-4360 (Linking)
VI  - 12
IP  - 12
DP  - 2020 Nov 30
TI  - Thermally Conductive Polyethylene/Expanded Graphite Composites as Heat Transfer 
      Surface: Mechanical, Thermo-Physical and Surface Behavior.
LID - 10.3390/polym12122863 [doi]
LID - 2863
AB  - Composites of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and expanded graphite (EG) are 
      prepared for heat exchangers in multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination. At 
      50 wt.% EG loading, the thermal conductivity of HDPE was increased by 372%. 
      Moreover, the surface wettability of the HDPE/EG composite was enhanced by corona 
      and RF plasma treatment as demonstrated by the increase in surface free energy 
      from 28.5 mJ/m(2) for untreated HDPE/EG to 55.5 and 54.5 mJ/m(2) for HDPE/EG 
      treated by corona and RF plasma, respectively. This enhanced surface wettability 
      was retained over a long time with only a 9% and 18% decrease in RF and corona 
      plasma-treated samples' surface energy after two months. The viscoelastic moduli 
      and the complex viscosity profiles indicated that EG content dictates the optimum 
      processing technique. At loading below 30 wt.%, the extrusion process is 
      preferred, while above 30 wt.% loading, injection molding is preferred. The 
      plasma treatment also improved the HDPE/EG composite overall heat transfer 
      coefficient with an overall heat transfer coefficient of the composite reaching 
      about 98% that of stainless steel. Moreover, the plasma-treated composite 
      exhibited superior resistance to crystallization fouling in both CaSO(4) solution 
      and artificial seawater compared to untreated composites and stainless-steel 
      surfaces.
FAU - Sobolciak, Patrik
AU  - Sobolciak P
AD  - Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713 Doha, Qatar.
FAU - Abdulgader, Asma
AU  - Abdulgader A
AD  - Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713 Doha, Qatar.
FAU - Mrlik, Miroslav
AU  - Mrlik M
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-6203-6795
AD  - Centre of Polymer Systems, University Institute, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, 
      Trida T. Bati 5678, 76001 Zlin, Czech Republic.
FAU - Popelka, Anton
AU  - Popelka A
AD  - Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713 Doha, Qatar.
FAU - A Abdala, Ahmed
AU  - A Abdala A
AD  - Chemical Engineering Program, Texas A&M University at Qatar, P.O. Box 23874 Doha, 
      Qatar.
FAU - A Aboukhlewa, Abdelnasser
AU  - A Aboukhlewa A
AD  - Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, HBKU, P.O. Box 5825 Doha, Qatar.
FAU - Karkri, Mustapha
AU  - Karkri M
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-7376-0508
AD  - CERTES, Universite Paris-Est Creteil Val de Marne, 94000 Paris, France.
FAU - Kiepfer, Hendrik
AU  - Kiepfer H
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-1552-0386
AD  - Chair of Separation Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3049 TU Kaiserslautern, 
      67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
FAU - Bart, Hans-Jorg
AU  - Bart HJ
AD  - Chair of Separation Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3049 TU Kaiserslautern, 
      67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
FAU - Krupa, Igor
AU  - Krupa I
AD  - Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713 Doha, Qatar.
LA  - eng
GR  - NPRP10-0205-170349/Qatar National Research Fund/
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20201130
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Polymers (Basel)
JT  - Polymers
JID - 101545357
PMC - PMC7760837
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - expanded graphite
OT  - high density polyethylene
OT  - multi-effect distillation
OT  - plasma treatment
OT  - polymeric composites
OT  - scaling
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2020/12/04 06:00
MHDA- 2020/12/04 06:01
PMCR- 2020/11/30
CRDT- 2020/12/03 01:05
PHST- 2020/11/05 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2020/11/22 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2020/11/23 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2020/12/03 01:05 [entrez]
PHST- 2020/12/04 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/12/04 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2020/11/30 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - polym12122863 [pii]
AID - polymers-12-02863 [pii]
AID - 10.3390/polym12122863 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Polymers (Basel). 2020 Nov 30;12(12):2863. doi: 10.3390/polym12122863.