Abstract
Waste rubber wood (RW) is the castoff of rubber plantation with abundant reservation but without high-value utilization. In this study, cellulose with high purity has been efficiently isolated from waste RW and further processed into cellulose nanocrystals. By means of acetylation, more hydrophobic cellulose-based products, namely acetylated rubber wood cellulose (Ac–RWC) and acetylated rubber wood cellulose nanocrystals (Ac–RW–CNC) had been attempted as reinforcing fillers for fabricating two series of PLA-based composite films via spin coating instead of currently prevailing melt compounding technique. To ensure a uniformed dispersion of fillers in PLA matrix, the addition of reinforcing filler should be equal to or less than 5% based on the film dry weight. Compared with pure PLA film, the Ac–RWC reinforced PLA composite films are more thermally stable, while the Ac–RW–CNC reinforced PLA composite films on the other hand exhibit more enhanced performance in mechanical properties and the degree of crystallinity. The highest tensile strength (55.0 MPa) and Young’s modulus (3.9 GPa) were achieved for 5%Ac–RW–CNC/PLA composite film.
Highlights
Under the requirements of environment protection and sustainable development, large-scale limitation or complete prohibition of disposable plastic products has been implemented by an increasing number of countries and regions (Niu et al, 2018)
The aim of the present study is to realize the high value utilization of rubber wood cellulose (RWC) by developing two binary bio-composite film systems composed of acetylated cellulose-based filler and polylactic acid (PLA) matrix
According to the results of composition analysis, RW can be regarded as an ideal source of cellulose, for its high content of glucan (52.8%) based on the dry weight of the starting material (Table 1)
Summary
Under the requirements of environment protection and sustainable development, large-scale limitation or complete prohibition of disposable plastic products has been implemented by an increasing number of countries and regions (Niu et al, 2018). Numerous merits (e.g., non-toxicity, non-irritation, biodegradability, good processability, comparable mechanical properties, etc.) guarantee its critical status both in academia and industry (Abdulkhani et al, 2014; Murariu and Dubois, 2016; Santoro et al, 2016; Tajbakhsh and Hajiali, 2017; Niu et al, 2018), poor thermal stability, high brittleness, and limited gas barrier property are still the limiting factors of PLA in packaging field (Abdulkhani et al, 2014; Liu et al, 2014). The characteristics of natural polymers (e.g., cellulose, starch, etc.) meet the basic requirements of green and sustainable chemistry (e.g., biodegradability, renewability, and cost-effectiveness), but would endow the ultimate PLA-based bio-composites with improved mechanical properties, thermal stability, and flexibility (Kamal and Khoshkava, 2015; Niu et al, 2018). Numerous species of lignocellulosic wastes (e.g., bagasse, cornstalk, coconut husk, etc.) have been attempted for isolation of cellulose (Ditzel et al, 2017; Tuerxun et al, 2019; Wu et al, 2019; Ejaz et al, 2020; Kian et al, 2020; Wang H. et al, 2020) and the obtained cellulose could be further processed for high-value utilization
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