TY  - EJOU
AU  - Wei, Liqing 
AU  - Luo, Shupin 
AU  - McDonald, Armando G. 
AU  - Agarwal, Umesh P. 
AU  - Hirth, Kolby C. 
AU  - Matuana, Laurent M. 
AU  - Sabo, Ronald C. 
AU  - Stark, Nicole M. 

TI  - Preparation and Characterization of the Nanocomposites from Chemically Modified Nanocellulose and Poly(lactic acid)
T2  - Journal of Renewable Materials

PY  - 2017
VL  - 5
IS  - 5
SN  - 2164-6341

AB  - Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are renewable and sustainable filler for polymeric nanocomposites. However, their high hydrophilicity limits their use with hydrophobic polymer for composite materials. In this study, freeze-dried CNCs were modified by transesterification with canola oil fatty acid methyl ester to reduce the hydrophilicity. The transesterified CNCs (CNCFE) were compounded with PLA into nanocomposites. CNCFE with long-chain hydrocarbons plays a role as plasticizer. Increasing CNCFE loadings resulted in clear plasticizing effects. Lower Tg and Tm were achieved for CNCFE-based nanocomposites. Plasticizing nanocomposite melt with CNCFE can mitigate the degradation of CNCs during thermal processing. The elongation at break of nanocomposites containing 5% CNCFE was increased. Dynamic rheological study showed the highest elastic and viscous moduli (G′ and G″) and complex viscosity (G*) of nanocomposites with addition of 2% CNCFE. By tailoring the loadings of the transesterified CNCs, tunable structure and properties of nanocomposites can be obtained.
KW  - Nanocellulose
KW  -  modification
KW  -  nanocomposites
KW  -  characterization

DO  - 10.7569/JRM.2017.634144