Influence of CaCO3 pore-forming agent on porosity and thermal conductivity of cellulose acetate materials prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation

Abstract

Thermal insulation materials with a low thermal conductivity are indeed demanded because they play the main role in the enhancement of energy conservation in various industries, especially lightweight constructive materials. Therefore, tubular cellulose acetate (CA) materials were firstly prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS). In the NIPS process, the concentration of CA was varied in a range of 20–40 wt%. Also, the temperature of water used as a non-solvent was studied from 5 °C up to 50 °C. According to the FE-SEM results, the 30 wt% CA solution at 20 °C provides tubular CA materials with a higher porous structure than an original CA material but the pore size is quite larger than the mean free path of air leading to achieve a material with high thermal conductivity. To overwhelmed such a problem, the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) was used to be pore forming agents in order to decrease pore size of prepared CA sheet materials. The amount of CaCO3 particles in the CA sheet materials was varied as 50 and 60 wt% to investigate its effect on porosity and thermal conductivity of the prepared materials. As the results, the CA sheet materials prepared using NIPS process and after removing 60 vol% CaCO3 have an enlargement of pores with a size lower than the mean free path of air. They exhibit high porous materials leading to the reduction of their thermal conductivity, which has the lowest value about 0.043 W/mK. Consequently, the CA materials are potentially applied for constructive materials in order to reduce energy consumption in buildings.