Abstract
Cellulose nanofibers (CNF), representing the nano-structured cellulose, have attained an extensive research attention due to their sustainability, biodegradability, nanoscale dimensions, large surface area, unique optical and mechanical performance, etc. Different lengths of CNF can lead to different extents of entanglements or network-like structures through van der Waals forces. In this study, a series of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite films, reinforced with CNF of different lengths, were fabricated via conventional solvent casting technique. CNF were extracted from jute fibers by tuning the dosage of sodium hypochlorite during the TEMPO-mediated oxidation. The mechanical properties and thermal behavior were observed to be significantly improved, while the optical transparency decreased slightly (Tr. > 75%). Interestingly, the PVA/CNF20 nanocomposite films exhibited higher tensile strength of 34.22 MPa at 2 wt% filler loading than the PVA/CNF10 (32.55 MPa) while displayed higher elastic modulus of 482.75 MPa than the PVA/CNF20 films (405.80 MPa). Overall, the findings reported in this study provide a novel, simple and inexpensive approach for preparing the high-performance polymer nanocomposites with tunable mechanical properties, reinforced with an abundant and renewable material.
Highlights
Yang et al produced cellulose nanofibrils with different lengths by the high-pressure homogenization and the results showed that the short cellulose nanofibril exhibited higher hydrophobicity and low interfacial tension [31]
Nano-Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) with different lengths were fabricated by the TEMPO catalytic oxidation
As observed from the TEM images of CNF20 (Figure 2a), CNF10 (Figure 2b) and CNF5 (Figure 2c), the diameters of the CNFs are in the nanoscale range, with the length successively increasing from a few hundred nanometers to a few microns
Summary
Nanotechnology has impacted the wide areas such as medicine, electronics and food technology by manipulating the nanomaterials for various purposes [1,2,3,4,5]. The material development has significant improved owing to the incorporation of nanotechnology. The use of nanomaterials as nano-reinforcement in the polymer composites has been widely reported [6,7]. The nanoscale fibers used for reinforcing the polymer matrices represent an important class of nano-reinforcements [8,9,10]. The fibers are dispersed at nanoscale, a significantly less filler fraction is needed as compared to the conventional reinforcing materials, while the properties of composites are markedly improved [11,12]
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