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...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chang, Boon Peng, Kashcheev, Aleksandr, Veksha, Andrei, Lisak, Grzegorz, Goei, Ronn, Leong, Kah Fai, Tok, Alfred ling Yoong, Lipik, Vitali
Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168781
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-168781
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1687812023-06-21T15:34:59Z 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 School of Materials Science and Engineering School of Civil and Environmental Engineering School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre Engineering::Materials Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes 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. Published version 2023-06-19T05:56:53Z 2023-06-19T05:56:53Z 2023 Journal Article Chang, B. P., Kashcheev, A., Veksha, A., Lisak, G., Goei, R., Leong, K. F., Tok, A. L. Y. & Lipik, V. (2023). Nanocomposite foams with balanced mechanical properties and energy return from EVA and CNT for the midsole of sports footwear application. Polymers, 15(4), 948-. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15040948 2073-4360 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168781 10.3390/polym15040948 36850231 2-s2.0-85149037229 4 15 948 en Polymers © 2023 by the authors. 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/). application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Materials
Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate
Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
spellingShingle Engineering::Materials
Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate
Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
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
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.
author2 School of Materials Science and Engineering
author_facet School of Materials Science and Engineering
Chang, Boon Peng
Kashcheev, Aleksandr
Veksha, Andrei
Lisak, Grzegorz
Goei, Ronn
Leong, Kah Fai
Tok, Alfred ling Yoong
Lipik, Vitali
format Article
author 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
title 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_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_sort nanocomposite foams with balanced mechanical properties and energy return from eva and cnt for the midsole of sports footwear application
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/168781
_version_ 1772828610637332480