Facile dispersion strategy to prepare polylactic acid/reed straw nanofiber composites with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties

Hongkun Wang; Xuran Liu; Jinfeng Liu; Min Wu; Yong Huang

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.08.121

Facile dispersion strategy to prepare polylactic acid/reed straw nanofiber composites with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties

Int J Biol Macromol. 2022 Nov 30:221:278-287. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.08.121. Epub 2022 Aug 26.

Authors

Hongkun Wang¹, Xuran Liu², Jinfeng Liu³, Min Wu⁴, Yong Huang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: wanghongkun18@mails.ucas.ac.cn.
² College of Material Engineering, North China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, Langfang 065000, China. Electronic address: liuxuran15@mails.ucas.ac.cn.
³ Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: liujinfeng17@mails.ucas.ac.cn.
⁴ Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: wumin@mail.ipc.ac.cn.
⁵ Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. Electronic address: yhuang@mail.ipc.ac.cn.

PMID: 36030979
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.08.121

Abstract

The challenge of dispersing nanocellulose in hydrophobic polymers such as polylactic acid (PLA) still obstacles the further application of cellulose nanocomposites. An environment-friendly and facile wet-shearing pretreatment strategy without using any organic solvent was developed in this work. Silane modified lignocellulose nanofiber (SLCNF) was pre-dispersed into PLA by wet-shearing pretreatment, followed by extrusion process and the SLCNF could be dispersed extremely well in PLA matrices. SLCNF formed a crosslinked network and had an improved compatibility, which improved the mechanical and thermal properties of PLA composites. The tensile strength, elongation at break and thermal deformation temperature of the composites were increased by 12.6 %, 32.4 % and 9.1 °C, respectively. Moreover, SLCNF promoted the crystallization of PLA as a heterogeneous nucleating agent and the crystallinity was increased by about 40 %. This study provides an effective way to disperse nanocellulose in polymer matrix with high efficiency to enhance polymer-based composites.

Keywords: Dispersion; Mechanical and thermal properties; Polylactic acid; Reed straw nanofiber; Wet-shearing pretreatment.

MeSH terms

Cellulose / chemistry
Nanofibers*
Polyesters / chemistry
Polymers / chemistry

Substances

poly(lactide)
Polyesters
Cellulose
Polymers