Abstract
Nanocomposite fibrous membranes have been fabricated by electrospinning cellulosenanocrystal (CNC)-loaded poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) ethanol mixtures. IncorporatingCNC in PAA significantly reduced fiber diameters and improved fiber uniformity.The average diameters of the as-spun nanocomposite fibers were significantlyreduced from 349 nm to 162 nm, 141 nm, 90 nm and 69 nm at 5%, 10%, 15% and20% CNC loading (by weight of a constant 4% PAA solution), respectively.CNC was well dispersed in the fibers as isolated rods oriented along the fiberaxis and as spheres in the PAA matrix. The Young modulus and stress of thePAA/CNC nanocomposite fibers were significantly improved with increasing CNC loadings by up to35-fold and 16-fold, respectively. Heat-induced esterification between the CNC surfacehydroxyls and PAA carboxyl groups produced covalent crosslinks at the CNC–PAAinterfaces, rendering the nanocomposite fibrous membranes insoluble in water, morethermally stable and far more superior in tensile strength. With 20% CNC, the crosslinkednanocomposite fibrous membrane exhibited a very impressive 77-fold increase in modulusand 58-fold increase in stress.
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