Polylactic acid-lauryl functionalized nanocellulose nanocomposites: Microstructural, thermo-mechanical and gas transport properties

Abstract

According to the European Bioplastics association, in 2017, the so-called bioplastics represented only 2.06 million tons of the 320 million tons of plastics produced annually [1]. The global production capacity is expected to increase up to 2.62 million tons in 2023. This growth is pushed by the demand of more sophisticated biopolymers, new applications and products. From packaging, agriculture, consumer electronics, textile to automotive, bioplastics are used in an increasing number of applications. In fact, biopolymers offer a number of additional advantages if compared to conventional plastics, such as a reduced carbon footprint and additional waste management options. Among bio-based and biodegradable plastics, polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most interesting ones due to their good mechanical properties, good workability, excellent barrier properties. Therefore, it is a good candidate for the replacement of polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) in many applications. However, PLA presents some weak points mainly represented by its low ductility, poor toughness, low glass transition temperature, high sensitivity to moisture and relatively low gas barrier, that limit its use in packaging applications [2, 3]. Indeed, the main

Open Volumes Structure and Molecular Transport in Biopolymer Nanocomposites

“…This microstructural description is also supported by the analysis of the permeation data that are well fitted by a model considering a region around the ovoid filler with permeability higher than that of PLA [6].…”

“…Details about synthesis of PLA and PLA with 4.1-12.4 vol.% of LNC nanocomposite samples are reported in Ref. [6]. In samples with 5.4 vol.% LNC, nanofibrils were observed, by SEM micrographs, to form aggregates with irregular shapes with a size of ≈ 0.8 µm.…”

Potential of Cellulose Microfibers for PHA and PLA Biopolymers Reinforcement

“…Degree of crystallinity ( X c ) was calculated according to [ 18 ]: where Δ H m is the melting enthalpy of the samples. Δ H polymer is the enthalpy for 100% crystalline PLA and PHA, which is approximately 93.6 J/g and 146 J/g, respectively, [ 18 , 19 ] and W is the net weight fraction of PLA or PHA in the composites. The enthalpy values were evaluated as the integral of their corresponding peak, i.e., the area under the endothermic peak to estimate the melting enthalpy.…”

Nanocellulose: From Fundamentals to Advanced Applications

“…Nanocellulose exhibits some exclusive features such as exceptional mechanical properties (i.e., low density, high flexibility, and strength while being chemically inert) (Lavoine and Bergström, 2017) and thermal properties (Gan et al, 2020). Over the past few decades, many research studies have been conducted on the reinforcement of polymer matrix nanocomposites, for instance, natural rubber nanocomposites (Neto et al, 2016;Cao et al, 2018;Dominic et al, 2020), polylactic acid nanocomposites (Gitari et al, 2019;Rigotti et al, 2019), epoxy nanocomposites (Ayrilmis et al, 2019;Yan et al, 2019;Yue et al, 2019), and polystyrene nanocomposites (Clarke et al, 2019;Neves et al, 2019), where nanocellulose has been introduced as a reinforcing agent.…”