Abstract

Despite attractive properties of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) such as high natural abundance, inherent biodegradability and high modulus, CNCs tend to degrade and aggregate when exposed to high temperatures during melt processing. In the present work, the surface of CNCs was modified with PMMA to take advantage of the miscibility with various biobased polymers including PLLA when melt-blended. Particular attention was paid to grafting techniques in water medium using two different redox initiators: Fe2+/H2O2 (Fenton’s reagent) and ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN). The successful synthesis of CNC-g-PMMA was verified by gravimetric analysis, FTIR, CP-MAS 13C NMR and suspension tests. A high grafting efficiency of 77% was achieved using CAN as the redox initiator. Increasing the PMMA content on CNC surfaces led to higher CNC thermal stability. As a consequence of PMMA grafting in water, modified CNCs were found to be predispersed in a PMMA network. PLLA/CNC nanocomposites were then prepared by melt-blending, i....

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