Effect of nanocrystalline cellulose on morphological, thermal, and mechanical properties of Nylon 6 composites

Abstract

In this study, nanocomposites based on Nylon 6 and nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) were prepared by melt compounding. Then, morphological, thermal, and mechanical properties were analyzed for NCC content between 0 and 7 wt%. Morphological analyses showed different roughness in fractured surface of neat Nylon and its nanocomposites caused by the presence of NCC. Mechanical results showed that the optimum properties were obtained at 3% NCC which could be related to relatively good NCC dispersion at low concentrations with good Nylon-NCC bonding. Overall, flexural (41%) and tensile (23%) moduli, as well as tensile strength (11%) were increased up to 3% of NCC. However, elongation at break and impact strength decreased with NCC addition. Finally, density and hardness showed only a small increase of 5 and 3%, respectively. POLYM. COMPOS., 00:000-000, 2014.

Nano‐crystalline cellulose, chemical blowing agent, and mold temperature effect on morphological, physical/mechanical properties of polypropylene

“…For the foam samples, F S increased by about 15–20% for NCC content of 0 to 5wt % for both mold temperatures which could be related to relatively good interfacial bonding between NCC and PP allowing good stress transfer from the matrix to the nano‐particles . As expected, this increase was lower than reported in our previous work because a polar matrix (PA6) was used . Nevertheless, the results show the potential of NCC to increase flexural property of both PP composites and foams at low filler content.…”

“…This clearly shows that NCC is a reinforcement agent because of its intrinsic high modulus (6.5 GPa) compared to PP (0.60 GPa) . Even if PP is a nonpolar thermoplastic, the tensile modulus improvements reported here with NCC, which is a polar material, are comparable with NCC‐PA6 composites as reported elsewhere . It is also worth mentioning that this low amount of NCC was able to better improve tensile modulus than micron‐size particles at higher content.…”

“…As NCC increased from 0 to 5wt %, I S decreased by around 15–19% for composites and 12–13% for foam samples. These results were expected as the presence of rigid nano‐particles increase the interfacial area between the matrix and the fibers and helps probable crack initiation and propagation . CFA addition, especially at 1%, decreased the I S by about 30% compared to their composite counterparts at both mold temperatures.…”

“…Nevertheless, some efforts have been done to produce NCC filled thermoplastic composites via melt blending . In our previous studies, the addition of 5wt % of NCC was shown to improve the tensile (23% in modulus and 10% in strength) and flexural (32% in modulus) properties of nylon 6 (PA6) nano‐composites produced by extrusion coupled with injection molding …”

Characterization of mechanical and morphological properties of cellulose reinforced polyamide 6 composites

“…The goal of this study is to extend the application limit of the cellulosic materials in thermoplastics. Compounding spraydried CNC particles with polyamide 6 using an extrusion process at 220°C was conducted (Yousefian and Rodrigue 2014). The tensile modulus, tensile strength, and flexural modulus were increased by 23, 11, and 41 % with the addition of 3 wt% the CNC particles.…”