Design of Extruded Nanostructured Composites via Decoupling of the Cellulose Nanofibril/Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) Interface

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Title: Design of Extruded Nanostructured Composites via Decoupling of the Cellulose Nanofibril/Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) Interface
Authors: Avella, Angelica, 1995, Telaretti Leggieri, Maria Rosella, Alexakis, Alexandros Efraim, Malmstrom, E., Lo Re, Giada, 1971
Source: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 17(1):2602-2614
Subject Terms: cellulose nanofibrils, poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate), diblock copolymers, nanocomposites, interface design
Description: The full exploitation of the outstanding mechanical properties of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) as potential reinforcements in nanocomposite materials is limited by the poor interactions at the CNF-polymer matrix interface. Within this work, tailor-made copolymers were designed to mediate the interface between CNFs and biodegradable poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), and their effect on extruded nanocomposite performance was tested. For this purpose, two well-defined amphiphilic anchor-tail diblock copolymer structures were compared, with a fixed anchor block length and a large difference in the hydrophobic tail block length. The aim was to evaluate the impact of the copolymers’ chain length on the nanocomposite interface. The presence of amphiphilic diblock copolymers significantly improved the mechanical properties compared to those of PBAT nanocomposites containing unmodified CNFs. In particular, the copolymer with a longer tail was more effective for CNF-PBAT dispersion interactions, leading to a 65% increase of Young’s modulus of neat PBAT, while retaining high deformability (670%). The results provide insights into the effectiveness of a waterborne third component at the CNF-matrix interface and its structure-property relationship.
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Access URL: https://research.chalmers.se/publication/544547
https://research.chalmers.se/publication/544547/file/544547_Fulltext.pdf
Database: SwePub
Description
Abstract:The full exploitation of the outstanding mechanical properties of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) as potential reinforcements in nanocomposite materials is limited by the poor interactions at the CNF-polymer matrix interface. Within this work, tailor-made copolymers were designed to mediate the interface between CNFs and biodegradable poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), and their effect on extruded nanocomposite performance was tested. For this purpose, two well-defined amphiphilic anchor-tail diblock copolymer structures were compared, with a fixed anchor block length and a large difference in the hydrophobic tail block length. The aim was to evaluate the impact of the copolymers’ chain length on the nanocomposite interface. The presence of amphiphilic diblock copolymers significantly improved the mechanical properties compared to those of PBAT nanocomposites containing unmodified CNFs. In particular, the copolymer with a longer tail was more effective for CNF-PBAT dispersion interactions, leading to a 65% increase of Young’s modulus of neat PBAT, while retaining high deformability (670%). The results provide insights into the effectiveness of a waterborne third component at the CNF-matrix interface and its structure-property relationship.
ISSN:19448252
19448244
DOI:10.1021/acsami.4c17899