Abstract
Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) have been widely used as a nanofiller for polymer composite reinforcement due to their excellent mechanical properties. However, CNF is produced in water and needs to be dried prior to use in composite materials. The presence of hydroxyl groups on the surface of CNF creates strong hydrogen bonding that makes it difficult and costly to dry. Additionally, the hydrophilicity at the fiber surface results in agglomeration of CNFs within many polymer matrices. In this study, chitosan (CS) was co-precipitated with CNF to produce a dual-bonding filler for use in poly (lactic acid) (PLA) composites. CS promotes improved interfacial interaction within the polymer matrix by forming strong hydrogen bonds with the CNF and potential covalent bonds with the PLA. The results confirmed that the addition of a small amount of CS significantly improved the mechanical properties compared to PLA + CNF composites and neat PLA. The detailed study of the PLA + CNF/CS composites reveals the synergetic effect of the hydrogen and covalent bonding mechanism for PLA reinforcement.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Advanced Manufacturing Office and used resources at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a User Facility of DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). Microscopy studies were completed at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Authors thank Dr. Harry Meyer for his help on XPS measurement and Dr. Yunqiao Pu for his help on solid state NMR measurement.
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This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy.
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MEL: Methodology, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. KL: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing—review & editing. DK: Investigation. XZ: Investigation, Writing—review & editing. HEH: Investigation. KC: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing. HT: Writing—review & editing. SO: Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition.
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Lamm, M.E., Li, K., Ker, D. et al. Exploiting chitosan to improve the interface of nanocellulose reinforced polymer composites. Cellulose 29, 3859–3870 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04327-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04327-2