Solution spinning of cellulose carbon nanotube composites using room temperature ionic liquids

Effect of fibre spinning conditions on the electrical properties of cellulose and carbon nanotube composite fibres spun using ionic liquid as a benign solvent

“…In addition, the (002) graphitic peak at 2" = 26.8° corresponding to MWNTs is also observed Zhu et al -eXPRESS Polymer Letters Vol.8, No.3 (2014) in the composite fibres as expected [8,43]. The peaks at around 12° correspond to cellulose (1 -10) plane, whereas the peaks at around 22° correspond to cellulose (020) plane [8,39,41]. Figure 8a-8d show the two dimensional WAXD diffraction patterns of cellulose film and fibres spun at different spinning rates.…”

“…The diffraction patterns of these film and fibres correspond to the cellulose II structure [41,42], which is a widely known type of crystal structure of regenerated cellulose after its dissolution. In addition, the (002) graphitic peak at 2" = 26.8° corresponding to MWNTs is also observed Zhu et al -eXPRESS Polymer Letters Vol.8, No.3 (2014) in the composite fibres as expected [8,43]. The peaks at around 12° correspond to cellulose (1 -10) plane, whereas the peaks at around 22° correspond to cellulose (020) plane [8,39,41].…”

“…The cellulose pulp sheets with a degree of polymerisation (DP) of 890 were provided by Rayonier (Jacksonville, United States). The MWNT forest, with average MWNT outer diameter of 80 nm and length of 1 mm [8], were kindly supplied by Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy in University of Cambridge with synthesis details and characterisation published elsewhere [30]. A magnetic stirrer hotplate (Fisher scientific, Loughborough, UK) with oil bath was used for solution preparation.…”

“…To overcome the first challenge, room temperature ionic liquids such as EMIMAc can be employed as environmentally benign solvent, which is safer and easier to handle than traditionally used solvents such as carbon disulphide [9], sulphuric acid [10] and N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) [11]. A number of researchers have used ionic liquids for fibre stretching/spinning of cellulose [12][13][14][15][16][17][18], wool [19,20], chitin [21][22][23][24] and other natural polymers [25][26][27][28], as well as composite fibres of cellulose [8,29]. Despite this progress, the remaining two challenges, uniform dispersion of carbon nanotube in cellulose solution dope and avoidance of high degree of alignment of carbon nanotubes during fibre spinning, still remain largely unaddressed.…”

Treated Nypa fruticans Husk-filled Regenerated Cellulose Biocomposite Films

“…Ionic liquids have the potential to be ecofriendly with characteristics of low melting point, non-volatility, thermal stability, low flammability, non-explosiveness, ease of recycling, good recoverability, and superior dissolving capacity (Rahatekar et al 2009;Zhang et al 2010;Mahmoudian et al 2012). Typical examples of ILs include lithium chloride (LiCl)/N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BIM][Cl]), N-methylmorpholine N-oxide (NMMO), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([Emim][Ac]), and 1-n-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Amim][Cl]) (Shafiei et al 2013;Soheilmoghaddam et al 2013;Olsson et al 2014).…”