Author(s)

HITOSHI TAKAGI, HIROAKI GENTA, ANTONIO NORIO NAKAGAITO

Abstract

As a potential nanoscale reinforcement, nanocellulose fibers (NCFs) have drawn much scholarly attention. The NCFs whose typical diameter is 5–100 nm exhibited potentially high mechanical properties, and its tensile strength and modulus were estimated to be 1.7 GPa and 140 GPa. These higher tensile strength of the NCF is reported to be equivalent to those of glass fiber. However, the resultant mechanical properties reported for the NCF reinforced composites are lower than estimated values. In this study, we tried to enhance their mechanical properties by applying the following two approaches. These approaches are optimization in the fibrillation condition of NCFs by using grinding treatment and ultrasonic treatment. The effectiveness of the proposed two approaches has been successfully demonstrated experimentally; tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the NCFreinforced composites ultra-sonicated for 60 min were improved by 70% and 55%, respectively, compared to that of the untreated composites.

Keywords

nanocellulose fiber, green composites, polyvinyl alcohol, dispersion