Abstract
Climate change, waste disposal challenges, and emissions generated by the manufacture of non-renewable materials are driving forces behind the production of more sustainable composite materials. All-cellulose composites (ACCs) originate from renewable biomass, such as trees and other plants, and are considered fully biodegradable. Dissolving cellulose is a common part of manufacturing ACCs, and currently there is a lot of research focused on effective, but also more environmentally friendly cellulose solvents. There are several beneficial properties of ACC materials that make them competitive: light weight, recyclability, low toxicity, good optical, mechanical, and gas barrier properties, and abundance of renewable plant-based raw material. The most prominent ACC applications are currently found in the food packing, medical, technical and vehicle industries. All-cellulose nanocomposites (ACNCs) expand the current research field and can offer a variety of more specific and functional applications. This review provides an overview of the manufacture of sustainable ACCs from lignocellulose, purified cellulose, and cellulosic textiles. There is an introduction of the cellulose dissolution practices of creating ACCs that are currently researched, the structure of cellulose during complete or partial dissolution is discussed, and a brief overview of factors which influence composite properties is presented.
Highlights
Worldwide, an ever-increasing amount of consumable materials is produced and used.At the same time, we are facing severe environmental crises: poor waste management, microplastics in all waterways, depleting natural resources, and increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere [1]
In the brief outline on cellulose chemistry and composition we provide an overview on cellulose dissolution and regeneration practices that utilize different solvent systems
Biocomposites [152] and all-cellulose composites [153] have more sustainable plant-based fibres to meet the demands of current standards, where the focus is on waste reduction, production efficiency, durability, water saving, recycling and closed-loop production [145]
Summary
An ever-increasing amount of consumable materials is produced and used. At the same time, we are facing severe environmental crises: poor waste management, microplastics in all waterways, depleting natural resources, and increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere [1]. One way to overcome this problem and increase recyclability is to create single-polymer composites (SPCs), where reinforcement and matrix are composed of the same materials [7]. This effectively removes the fibre-matrix adhesion challenges between different types of polymers [8]. All-cellulose nanocomposites (ACNC) are a subclass of nanocomposites produced using plant- and bacterial-based nanocellulose They are manufactured via same methods as macroscale ACCs and they can improve the desired properties of the composite material such as enhance its mechanical strength [18,19,20,21,22]. Different fabrication routes to combine natural fibres to dissolved matrix systems lead to fabrication techniques to obtain single polymer composites from cellulose and how to influence their properties
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