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Nanocomposite Foams with Balanced Mechanical Properties and Energy Return from EVA and CNT for the Midsole of Sports Footwear Application

Polymer foam that provides good support with high energy return (low energy loss) is desirable for sport footwear to improve running performance. Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) foam is commonly used in the midsole of running shoes. However, EVA foam exhibits low mechanical properties. Conven...

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Autores principales: Chang, Boon Peng, Kashcheev, Aleksandr, Veksha, Andrei, Lisak, Grzegorz, Goei, Ronn, Leong, Kah Fai, Tok, Alfred ling Yoong, Lipik, Vitali
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9968182/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36850231
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15040948
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author Chang, Boon Peng
Kashcheev, Aleksandr
Veksha, Andrei
Lisak, Grzegorz
Goei, Ronn
Leong, Kah Fai
Tok, Alfred ling Yoong
Lipik, Vitali
author_facet Chang, Boon Peng
Kashcheev, Aleksandr
Veksha, Andrei
Lisak, Grzegorz
Goei, Ronn
Leong, Kah Fai
Tok, Alfred ling Yoong
Lipik, Vitali
author_sort Chang, Boon Peng
collection PubMed
description Polymer foam that provides good support with high energy return (low energy loss) is desirable for sport footwear to improve running performance. Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) foam is commonly used in the midsole of running shoes. However, EVA foam exhibits low mechanical properties. Conventional mineral fillers are usually employed to improve EVA’s mechanical performance, but the energy return is sacrificed. Here, we produced nanocomposite foams from EVA and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) using a chemical foaming process. Two kinds of CNT derived from the upcycling of commodity plastics were prepared through a catalytic chemical vapor deposition process and used as reinforcing and nucleating agents. Our results show that EVA foam incorporated with oxygenated CNT (O-CNT) demonstrated a more pronounced improvement of physical, mechanical, and dynamic impact response properties than acid-purified CNT (A-CNT). When CNT with weight percentage as low as 0.5 wt% was added to the nanocomposites, the physical properties, abrasion resistance, compressive strength, dynamic stiffness, and rebound performance of the EVA foams were improved significantly. Unlike the conventional EVA formulation filled with talc mineral fillers, the incorporation of CNT does not compromise the energy return of the EVA foam. From the long-cycle dynamic fatigue test, the CNT/EVA foam displays greater properties retention as compared to the talc/EVA foam. This work demonstrates a good balanced of mechanical-energy return properties of EVA nanocomposite foam with very low CNT content, which presents promising opportunities for lightweight–high rebound midsoles for running shoes.
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spelling pubmed-99681822023-02-27 Nanocomposite Foams with Balanced Mechanical Properties and Energy Return from EVA and CNT for the Midsole of Sports Footwear Application Chang, Boon Peng Kashcheev, Aleksandr Veksha, Andrei Lisak, Grzegorz Goei, Ronn Leong, Kah Fai Tok, Alfred ling Yoong Lipik, Vitali Polymers (Basel) Article Polymer foam that provides good support with high energy return (low energy loss) is desirable for sport footwear to improve running performance. Ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) foam is commonly used in the midsole of running shoes. However, EVA foam exhibits low mechanical properties. Conventional mineral fillers are usually employed to improve EVA’s mechanical performance, but the energy return is sacrificed. Here, we produced nanocomposite foams from EVA and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) using a chemical foaming process. Two kinds of CNT derived from the upcycling of commodity plastics were prepared through a catalytic chemical vapor deposition process and used as reinforcing and nucleating agents. Our results show that EVA foam incorporated with oxygenated CNT (O-CNT) demonstrated a more pronounced improvement of physical, mechanical, and dynamic impact response properties than acid-purified CNT (A-CNT). When CNT with weight percentage as low as 0.5 wt% was added to the nanocomposites, the physical properties, abrasion resistance, compressive strength, dynamic stiffness, and rebound performance of the EVA foams were improved significantly. Unlike the conventional EVA formulation filled with talc mineral fillers, the incorporation of CNT does not compromise the energy return of the EVA foam. From the long-cycle dynamic fatigue test, the CNT/EVA foam displays greater properties retention as compared to the talc/EVA foam. This work demonstrates a good balanced of mechanical-energy return properties of EVA nanocomposite foam with very low CNT content, which presents promising opportunities for lightweight–high rebound midsoles for running shoes. MDPI 2023-02-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9968182/ /pubmed/36850231 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15040948 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chang, Boon Peng
Kashcheev, Aleksandr
Veksha, Andrei
Lisak, Grzegorz
Goei, Ronn
Leong, Kah Fai
Tok, Alfred ling Yoong
Lipik, Vitali
Nanocomposite Foams with Balanced Mechanical Properties and Energy Return from EVA and CNT for the Midsole of Sports Footwear Application
title Nanocomposite Foams with Balanced Mechanical Properties and Energy Return from EVA and CNT for the Midsole of Sports Footwear Application
title_full Nanocomposite Foams with Balanced Mechanical Properties and Energy Return from EVA and CNT for the Midsole of Sports Footwear Application
title_fullStr Nanocomposite Foams with Balanced Mechanical Properties and Energy Return from EVA and CNT for the Midsole of Sports Footwear Application
title_full_unstemmed Nanocomposite Foams with Balanced Mechanical Properties and Energy Return from EVA and CNT for the Midsole of Sports Footwear Application
title_short Nanocomposite Foams with Balanced Mechanical Properties and Energy Return from EVA and CNT for the Midsole of Sports Footwear Application
title_sort nanocomposite foams with balanced mechanical properties and energy return from eva and cnt for the midsole of sports footwear application
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9968182/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36850231
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15040948
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