Thomas Horseman, Mehdi Tajvidi , Cherif I. K. Diop , Douglas J. Gardner
Lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) were produced from thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) using a micro-grinder and were characterised with respect to fibre diameter and thermal stability. The initial water content in the TMP affected the defibrillation process and longer grinding time was necessary for the airdried TMP, resulting in LCNF with higher fibril diameter. As compared to the reference cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) produced through a refining process, LCNF was less thermally stable and started to degrade at a temperature that was 30C lower than that of CNF. LCNF obtained from the never-dried TMP was combined with various additives (10 wt%) to produce composite films. The neat LCNF and composite films did not reach the mechanical properties of the neat CNF film that was evaluated as reference. However, the addition of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) at 10 wt% on a dry basis did cause a 46 and 25% increase in tensile strength and elastic modulus, respectively. Other additives including cellulose nanocrystals, bentonite and CNF were also found to increase to some extent the Young’s modulus and ductility of the LCNF composite films whereas the addition of talc did not improve the film performance. Water absorption of neat LCNF films was lower than the reference CNF and was negatively affected by the addition of PVA.
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© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017
Lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) were produced from thermo-mechanical pulp (TMP) using a micro-grinder and were characterised with respect to fibre diameter and thermal stability. The initial water content in the TMP affected the defibrillation process and longer grinding time was necessary for the airdried TMP, resulting in LCNF with higher fibril diameter. As compared to the reference cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) produced through a refining process, LCNF was less thermally stable and started to degrade at a temperature that was 30C lower than that of CNF. LCNF obtained from the never-dried TMP was combined with various additives (10 wt%) to produce composite films. The neat LCNF and composite films did not reach the mechanical properties of the neat CNF film that was evaluated as reference. However, the addition of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) at 10 wt% on a dry basis did cause a 46 and 25% increase in tensile strength and elastic modulus, respectively. Other additives including cellulose nanocrystals, bentonite and CNF were also found to increase to some extent the Young’s modulus and ductility of the LCNF composite films whereas the addition of talc did not improve the film performance. Water absorption of neat LCNF films was lower than the reference CNF and was negatively affected by the addition of PVA.
Click here to download the entire article
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017