Thermal and mechanical properties of polypropylene nanocomposite materials reinforced with cellulose nano whiskers

Abstract

We use polypropylene (PP, an apolar polymer) and cellulose nano whiskers (CNW, a polar material) to produce nano polymer composites with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties. To improve compatibility, maleic anhydride grafted PP has also been used as a coupling agent. To enhance the uniform distribution of CNW in the composite, the matrix polymer is dissolved in toluene, and sonification and magnetic stirring are applied. Good film transparency indicates uniform CNW dispersion, but CNW domains in the composite film observed under an scanning electron microscope may indicate slight agglomeration of CNW in the composite film. The tensile strength of the composite compared with neat PP improves by 70-80% with the addition of CNW. The crystallinity has also been improved by about 50% in the CNW reinforced samples. As the content of CNW increases, the composite exhibits higher thermal degradation temperature, higher hydrophilicity, and higher thermal conductivity.

Antioxidant activities of lignin extracted from sugarcane bagasse via different chemical procedures

“…The utilizations of bioresources for chemicals, fuels and materials are now attracting more interests from scientific researchers that is driven by increasing environmental concerns and shortages in fossil fuel resources [1,2]. Lignin is the second abundant bioresource next to cellulose on the earth, as a component of the plant cell walls with cellulose and hemicellulose [3].…”

Enhanced homogeneity and interfacial compatibility in melt-extruded cellulose nano-fibers reinforced polyethylene via surface adsorption of poly(ethylene glycol)- block -poly(ethylene) amphiphiles

“…This is due to the inherent polar and hydrophilic nature of nanofiber and the non-polar characteristics of polyolefin often causing aggregation and dispersion issues associated with poor mechanical performance. This is why much of the work to date dealing with polyolefins cellulose nanocomposites has been focused on samples produced by solvent casting [14,15,44], which often give the highest mechanical performance materials compared to other processing techniques due to the better dispersion of the nano-fibers [24]. The melt compounding of surface modified cellulose nanofibers into LDPE was reported by De Menezes et al [28] where grafting of acid chlorides of various aliphatic chain lengths was carried out in order to compatibilize the LLDPE/cellulose interface.…”

Cellulose Nanocomposites

“…In an experimental investigation the processing, mechanical and thermal properties of a polypropylene PP/CNW nanocomposite were studied as they were affected by CNW content and amount of maleic anhydride (MA) grafted PP, MA-g-PP in PP matrix and its processing (42). Beside other techniques, SEM was used to investigate crack initiation and propagation process in notched and unnotched Izod impact fracture surfaces of the CNF and MFC filled PP composites compared with MCC-filled PP composites (43).…”