Physicomechanical properties of nanocomposites based on cellulose nanofibre and natural rubber latex
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Physicomechanical properties of nanocomposites based on cellulose nanofibre and natural rubber latex Eldho Abraham • B. Deepa • L. A. Pothan Maya John • S. S. Narine • S. Thomas • R. Anandjiwala
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Received: 5 July 2012 / Accepted: 12 November 2012 / Published online: 22 November 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012
Abstract Cellulose nanofibres (CNF) with diameter 10–60 nm were isolated from raw banana fibres by steam explosion process. These CNF were used as reinforcing elements in natural rubber (NR) latex along with cross linking agents to prepare nanocomposite films. The effect of CNF loading on the mechanical and dynamic mechanical (DMA) properties of NR/CNF nanocomposite was studied. The morphological, crystallographic and spectroscopic changes were also analyzed. Significant improvement of Young’s modulus and tensile strength was observed as a result of addition of CNF to the rubber matrix especially at higher CNF loading. DMA showed a change in the storage modulus of the rubber matrix upon addition of CNF which proves the reinforcing E. Abraham S. S. Narine Trent Biomaterials Research Program, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada E. Abraham B. Deepa L. A. Pothan (&) Department of Chemistry, Bishop Moore College, Mavelikkara 690 101, Kerala, India e-mail: [email protected] E. Abraham (&) S. Thomas School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686 560, Kerala, India e-mail: [email protected] M. John R. Anandjiwala Polymers and Composites Competence Area, CSIR, Materials Science and Manufacturing, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
effect of CNF in the NR latex. A mechanism is suggested for the introduction of the Zn–cellulose complex and its three dimensional network as a result of the reaction between the cellulose and the Zinc metal which is originated during the composite formation. Keywords Bionanocomposites Fibre/matrix bond Thermomechanical properties Natural rubber Nanocellulose Zn–cellulose complex
Introduction There is currently a considerable interest in processing polymeric composite materials filled with rigid particles having at least one dimension in the nanometer range. Because of the nanometric size effect, these composites display some unique properties with respect to their conventional microcomposite counterparts (Dufresne et al. 1996). In the context of both biomass valorization and nanocomposite materials development, cellulose nanofibres used as a filler in a polymeric matrix appear to be an interesting reinforcing agent (Angles and Dufresne 2000; Angellier et al. 2005). Cellulose is the most abundant and renewable biomaterial on earth and is totally biodegradable. Furthermore, compared to platelets like morphology of nanocrystals extracted from other sources like starch and potato, CNFs present the originality to have a rod like morphology having very high aspect ratio
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Cellulose (2013) 20:417–427
which gives exceptional characteristics to the nanofibres (Putaux et al. 2003; Youssef et al. 2010)
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