Well-Dispersed Cellulose Nanofiber in Low Density Polyethylene Nanocomposite by Liquid-Assisted Extrusion.

Tengku Arisyah Tengku Yasim-Anuar,Haruo Nishida,Mohd Nor Faiz Norrrahim,Yoshito Andou,Mohd Ali Hassan,Takayuki Tsukegi,Hidayah Ariffin

doi:10.3390/polym12040927

Abstract

Two different liquid assisted processing methods: internal melt-blending (IMB) and twin-screw extrusion (TWS) were performed to fabricate polyethylene (PE)/cellulose nanofiber (CNF) nanocomposites. The nanocomposites consisted maleic anhydride-grafted PE (PEgMA) as a compatibilizer, with PE/PEgMA/CNF ratio of 97/3/0.5–5 (wt./wt./wt.), respectively. Morphological analysis exhibited that CNF was well-dispersed in nanocomposites prepared by liquid-assisted TWS. Meanwhile, a randomly oriented and agglomerated CNF was observed in the nanocomposites prepared by liquid-assisted IMB. The nanocomposites obtained from liquid-assisted TWS exhibited the best mechanical properties at 3 wt.% CNF addition with an increment in flexural strength by almost 139%, higher than that of liquid-assisted IMB. Results from this study indicated that liquid feeding of CNF assisted the homogenous dispersion of CNF in PE matrix, and the mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were affected by compounding method due to the CNF dispersion and alignment.

Highlights

Cellulose nanofiber (CNF) derived from plant receives vast attention from researchers and industries due to its superior physical properties such as high crystallinity, thermally stable, biodegradable, biocompatible and non-toxic [1,2,3,4]
For nanocomposites prepared by liquid-assisted internal melt-blending (IMB), the Crystallinity index (CrI) value was approximately between 38.0–43.9%, while for nanocomposites prepared by liquid-assisted twin screw extrusion (TWS), the CrI value was evaluated to be around 38.1–44.4%. These results indicate that the incorporated CNF essentially increased CrI of the PE matrix
This study demonstrated that CNF can be incorporated in polyolefin such as PE for reinforcement material by liquid feeding of CNF

Summary

Introduction

Cellulose nanofiber (CNF) derived from plant receives vast attention from researchers and industries due to its superior physical properties such as high crystallinity, thermally stable, biodegradable, biocompatible and non-toxic [1,2,3,4]. CNF which is usually produced as a liquid suspension is dried prior to composite processing. This causes CNF to aggregate and poorly dispersed in the polymer matrix due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between the CNF during drying process [10]. The irreversible aggregation phenomenon of CNF upon drying leads to the size increment, and causing the nanofiber to lose its nano-scale characteristic [11]. This eventually contributes to the challenging process for the production of biocomposites reinforced dried-CNF

Methods

Results

Conclusion