caa a22 4500 605466548 CHVBK 20210128100307.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150401xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00397-014-0834-7 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00397-014-0834-7 Mechanical testing of small, thin samples in a humidity-controlled oven [Elektronische Daten] [Benjamin Caire, Melissa Vandiver, Matthew Liberatore] A new fixture for the mechanical characterization of thin polymer films under controlled temperature and relative humidity conditions is reported. Novel conducting polymers are often synthesized in small quantities and processed into films on the order of 10-100 microns thick. Standard tensile tests do not allow for adequate testing of these small sample sizes. Hence, a modification of the Sentmanat Extensional Rheometer (SER) to perform tensile testing on thin membranes is presented. Since the standard L-shaped pins do not secure thin polymer films at lower temperatures (i.e., below the melting point), screw down clamps were created to allow for mechanical characterization of solid polymer films. The new testing apparatus allows for mechanical characterization with as little as 2 % of the material needed for testing on a traditional tensile tester. In a parallel effort, a humidity delivery system developed for the TA Instruments ARES-G2 rheometer allows for testing at a range of temperatures (30-100 °C) and relative humidity conditions (0-95 % RH). The novel oven was benchmarked with low density polyethylene and Nafion 115Ⓡ. While the new experiment was built for characterization of ion exchange membranes for fuel cells, the oven is capable of characterizing any environmentally sensitive material using all standard rheometer geometries. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2015 Relative humidity controlled oven nationallicence Thin film mechanical polymer testing nationallicence Polymer rheology nationallicence Caire Benjamin Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 80401, Golden, CO, USA aut Vandiver Melissa Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 80401, Golden, CO, USA aut Liberatore Matthew Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 80401, Golden, CO, USA aut Rheologica Acta Springer Berlin Heidelberg 54/4(2015-04-01), 253-261 0035-4511 54:4<253 2015 54 397 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-014-0834-7 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00397-014-0834-7 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Caire Benjamin Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 80401, Golden, CO, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Vandiver Melissa Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 80401, Golden, CO, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Liberatore Matthew Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 80401, Golden, CO, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Rheologica Acta Springer Berlin Heidelberg 54/4(2015-04-01), 253-261 0035-4511 54:4<253 2015 54 397