Cellulose Nanofiber Composite Polymeric Materials with Reversible and Movable Cross-links and Evaluation of their Mechanical Properties

Author(s):  
Hinako Tsuchiya ◽  
Yuki Asaki ◽  
Garry Sinawang ◽  
Taka-aki Asoh ◽  
Motofumi Osaki ◽  
...  
2011 ◽  
Vol 462-463 ◽  
pp. 576-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hitoshi Takagi

Environmentally friendly cellulose nanofiber green composites were newly developed by combining two dispersion-type biodegradable resins: polylactic acid (PLA) and chemically modified starch, and cellulose nanofibers of two kinds. The nanoscale cellulose fibers were prepared by homogenization of wood pulp. The 10–100 nm diameter nanoscale cellulose fibers have a web-like network microstructure. The mixture of dispersion-type biodegradable resin and cellulose nanofibers was dried in an air-circulating oven to make composite preform sheets. Cellulose nanofiber composite samples were fabricated by press-forming of the preform sheets. Their mechanical properties were evaluated using room-temperature tensile tests. The composite composed of PLA-based resin and highly homogenized cellulose nanofibers showed higher mechanical properties than those of starch-based resin and coarse cellulose fibers. It is suggested that coarse cellulose fibers act as a defect, resulting in low mechanical properties. Maximum tensile strength reaches approximately 90 MPa at fiber weight contents of 60% by weight. This mechanical property is comparable to that of conventional glass-fiber-reinforced plastics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-120
Author(s):  
Raisa A. Alekhina ◽  
Victoriya E. Slavkina ◽  
Yuliya A. Lopatina

The article presents options for recycling polymers. The use of biodegradable materials is promising. This is a special class of polymers that can decompose under aerobic or anaerobic conditions under the action of microorganisms or enzymes forming natural products such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water, biomass, and inorganic salts. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in reviewing biodegradable materials that can be used for the manufacture of products used in agriculture. (Materials and methods) The study are based on open information sources containing information about biodegradable materials. Research methods are collecting, studying and comparative analysis of information. (Results and discussion) The article presents the advantages and disadvantages of biodegradable materials, mechanical properties of the main groups of biodegradable polymers. The article provides a summary list of agricultural products that can be made from biodegradable polymer materials. It was found that products from the general group are widely used in agriculture. Authors have found that products from a special group can only be made from biodegradable polymers with a controlled decomposition period in the soil, their use contributes to increasing the productivity of crops. (Conclusions) It was found that biodegradable polymer materials, along with environmental safety, have mechanical properties that allow them producing products that do not carry significant loads during operation. We have shown that the creation of responsible products (machine parts) from biodegradable polymers requires an increase in their strength properties, which is achievable by creating composites based on them. It was found that the technological complexity of their manufacture and high cost are the limiting factors for the widespread use of biodegradable polymers at this stage.


Biomolecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1456
Author(s):  
Isabel Matos Oliveira ◽  
Cristiana Gonçalves ◽  
Myeong Eun Shin ◽  
Sumi Lee ◽  
Rui Luis Reis ◽  
...  

Rheumatoid arthritis is a rheumatic disease for which a healing treatment does not presently exist. Silk fibroin has been extensively studied for use in drug delivery systems due to its uniqueness, versatility and strong clinical track record in medicine. However, in general, natural polymeric materials are not mechanically stable enough, and have high rates of biodegradation. Thus, synthetic materials such as gellan gum can be used to produce composite structures with biological signals to promote tissue-specific interactions while providing the desired mechanical properties. In this work, we aimed to produce hydrogels of tyramine-modified gellan gum with silk fibroin (Ty–GG/SF) via horseradish peroxidase (HRP), with encapsulated betamethasone, to improve the biocompatibility and mechanical properties, and further increase therapeutic efficacy to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The Ty–GG/SF hydrogels presented a β-sheet secondary structure, with gelation time around 2–5 min, good resistance to enzymatic degradation, a suitable injectability profile, viscoelastic capacity with a significant solid component and a betamethasone-controlled release profile over time. In vitro studies showed that Ty–GG/SF hydrogels did not produce a deleterious effect on cellular metabolic activity, morphology or proliferation. Furthermore, Ty–GG/SF hydrogels with encapsulated betamethasone revealed greater therapeutic efficacy than the drug applied alone. Therefore, this strategy can provide an improvement in therapeutic efficacy when compared to the traditional use of drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 404
Author(s):  
Nur Sharmila Sharip ◽  
Hidayah Ariffin ◽  
Tengku Arisyah Tengku Yasim-Anuar ◽  
Yoshito Andou ◽  
Yuki Shirosaki ◽  
...  

The major hurdle in melt-processing of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) nanocomposite lies on the high melt viscosity of the UHMWPE, which may contribute to poor dispersion and distribution of the nanofiller. In this study, UHMWPE/cellulose nanofiber (UHMWPE/CNF) bionanocomposites were prepared by two different blending methods: (i) melt blending at 150 °C in a triple screw kneading extruder, and (ii) non-melt blending by ethanol mixing at room temperature. Results showed that melt-processing of UHMWPE without CNF (MB-UHMWPE/0) exhibited an increment in yield strength and Young’s modulus by 15% and 25%, respectively, compared to the Neat-UHMWPE. Tensile strength was however reduced by almost half. Ethanol mixed sample without CNF (EM-UHMWPE/0) on the other hand showed slight decrement in all mechanical properties tested. At 0.5% CNF inclusion, the mechanical properties of melt-blended bionanocomposites (MB-UHMWPE/0.5) were improved as compared to Neat-UHMWPE. It was also found that the yield strength, elongation at break, Young’s modulus, toughness and crystallinity of MB-UHMWPE/0.5 were higher by 28%, 61%, 47%, 45% and 11%, respectively, as compared to the ethanol mixing sample (EM-UHMWPE/0.5). Despite the reduction in tensile strength of MB-UHMWPE/0.5, the value i.e., 28.4 ± 1.0 MPa surpassed the minimum requirement of standard specification for fabricated UHMWPE in surgical implant application. Overall, melt-blending processing is more suitable for the preparation of UHMWPE/CNF bionanocomposites as exhibited by their characteristics presented herein. A better mechanical interlocking between UHMWPE and CNF at high temperature mixing with kneading was evident through FE-SEM observation, explains the higher mechanical properties of MB-UHMWPE/0.5 as compared to EM-UHMWPE/0.5.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 773
Author(s):  
Ahmad Safwan Ismail ◽  
Mohammad Jawaid ◽  
Norul Hisham Hamid ◽  
Ridwan Yahaya ◽  
Azman Hassan

Polymer blends is a well-established and suitable method to produced new polymeric materials as compared to synthesis of a new polymer. The combination of two different types of polymers will produce a new and unique material, which has the attribute of both polymers. The aim of this work is to analyze mechanical and morphological properties of bio-phenolic/epoxy polymer blends to find the best formulation for future study. Bio-phenolic/epoxy polymer blends were fabricated using the hand lay-up method at different loading of bio-phenolic (5 wt%, 10 wt%, 15 wt%, 20 wt%, and 25 wt%) in the epoxy matrix whereas neat bio-phenolic and epoxy samples were also fabricated for comparison. Results indicated that mechanical properties were improved for bio-phenolic/epoxy polymer blends compared to neat epoxy and phenolic. In addition, there is no sign of phase separation in polymer blends. The highest tensile, flexural, and impact strength was shown by P-20(biophenolic-20 wt% and Epoxy-80 wt%) whereas P-25 (biophenolic-25 wt% and Epoxy-75 wt%) has the highest tensile and flexural modulus. Based on the finding, it is concluded that P-20 shows better overall mechanical properties among the polymer blends. Based on this finding, the bio-phenolic/epoxy blend with 20 wt% will be used for further study on flax-reinforced bio-phenolic/epoxy polymer blends.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1064
Author(s):  
Mohd Nor Faiz Norrrahim ◽  
Hidayah Ariffin ◽  
Tengku Arisyah Tengku Yasim-Anuar ◽  
Mohd Ali Hassan ◽  
Nor Azowa Ibrahim ◽  
...  

Residual hemicellulose could enhance cellulose nanofiber (CNF) processing as it impedes the agglomeration of the nanocellulose fibrils and contributes to complete nanofibrillation within a shorter period of time. Its effect on CNF performance as a reinforcement material is unclear, and hence this study seeks to evaluate the performance of CNF in the presence of amorphous hemicellulose as a reinforcement material in a polypropylene (PP) nanocomposite. Two types of CNF were prepared: SHS-CNF, which contained about 11% hemicellulose, and KOH-CNF, with complete hemicellulose removal. Mechanical properties of the PP/SHS-CNF and PP/KOH-CNF showed an almost similar increment in tensile strength (31% and 32%) and flexural strength (28% and 29%) when 3 wt.% of CNF was incorporated in PP, indicating that hemicellulose in SHS-CNF did not affect the mechanical properties of the PP nanocomposite. The crystallinity of both PP/SHS-CNF and PP/KOH-CNF nanocomposites showed an almost similar value at 55–56%. A slight decrement in thermal stability was seen, whereby the decomposition temperature at 10% weight loss (Td10%) of PP/SHS-CNF was 6 °C lower at 381 °C compared to 387 °C for PP/KOH-CNF, which can be explained by the degradation of thermally unstable hemicellulose. The results from this study showed that the presence of some portion of hemicellulose in CNF did not affect the CNF properties, suggesting that complete hemicellulose removal may not be necessary for the preparation of CNF to be used as a reinforcement material in nanocomposites. This will lead to less harsh pretreatment for CNF preparation and, hence, a more sustainable nanocomposite can be produced.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingmei Xie ◽  
Hiroki Kurita ◽  
Ryugo Ishigami ◽  
Fumio Narita

Epoxy resins are a widely used common polymer due to their excellent mechanical properties. On the other hand, cellulose nanofiber (CNF) is one of the new generation of fibers, and recent test results show that CNF reinforced polymers have high mechanical properties. It has also been reported that an extremely low CNF addition increases the mechanical properties of the matrix resin. In this study, we prepared extremely-low CNF (~1 wt.%) reinforced epoxy resin matrix (epoxy-CNF) composites, and tried to understand the strengthening mechanism of the epoxy-CNF composite through the three-point flexural test, finite element analysis (FEA), and discussion based on organic chemistry. The flexural modulus and strength were significantly increased by the extremely low CNF addition (less than 0.2 wt.%), although the theories for short-fiber-reinforced composites cannot explain the strengthening mechanism of the epoxy-CNF composite. Hence, we propose the possibility that CNF behaves as an auxiliary agent to enhance the structure of the epoxy molecule, and not as a reinforcing fiber in the epoxy resin matrix.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020.28 (0) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Hiroki TAKAHASHI ◽  
Morimasa NAKAMURA ◽  
Takashi MATSUOKA ◽  
Shinichiro IWAMOTO ◽  
Takashi ENDO

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