Abstract
Owing to their natural abundance and exceptional mechanical properties, cellulose fibers (CFs) have been used for reinforcing polymers. Despite these merits, dispersing hydrophilic CFs in a hydrophobic polymer matrix is challenging. To address this, an amphiphilic ammonium salt was employed as the dispersant for CFs in this study. The hydrophobic CFs were mixed with a healable polymer to produce CF-reinforced composites. As the thermosetting polymer was crosslinked with Diels–Alder (DA) adducts, it was mended and recycled via a retro DA reaction at 120 °C. Interestingly, the CF-reinforced polymer composites were mended and recycled as well. When 5 wt % of the hydrophobic CFs was added to the polymer, maximum tensile strength, elongation at break, Young’s modulus, and toughness increased by 70%, 183%, 75%, and 420%, respectively. After recycling, the CF-reinforced composites still featured better mechanical properties than recycled polymer.
Highlights
Cellulose fibers (CFs) have drawn much attention as composite materials due to their intrinsic advantages, such as natural abundance, low cost, and excellent mechanical properties [1]
Poly(propylene glycol) (Mn ~ 1000 g/mol), tetramethylammonium chloride (TM), tetrabutylammonium chloride (TB), hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (TH), propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA), methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), dimethylformamide (DMF), and dibutyltin dilaurate were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Korea Ltd, Yongin, Korea
To make CFs hydrophobic, their aqueous solutions were treated with quaternary alkyl ammoniums (QAAs)
Summary
Cellulose fibers (CFs) have drawn much attention as composite materials due to their intrinsic advantages, such as natural abundance, low cost, and excellent mechanical properties [1]. As celluloses feature a linear chain in which glucose is linked through β-1,4-glucosidic bonds, they aggregate to form fibers through hydrogen bonding [2] This provides CFs with a high elastic modulus of 138 GPa [3]. Celluloses have been modified using NIO4 [4,5], acid anhydride [6], carbonyl chloride [7,8], TEMPO/NaClO [9,10], deep-eutectic solvents [11,12], and silanes [13] These methods are effective for the modification of CFs, they require multiple steps and the use of organic solvents. To reduce the cost of composite fabrication, a simple and cost-effective way to generate hydrophobic CFs is needed
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