Nanofiller effect of single-walled carbon nanotubes to elongate, toughen and acceleratingly produce ionic liquid dry-jet wet spun cellulose fibre

Abstract

A cellulose is produced from renewable natural resources, and the regenerated fibres have been widely utilized, e.g., a tyre cord fabric. However, the production of viscose Rayon is inevitable to use environmentally burdened chemicals like CS2. We propose an eco-friendly cellulose fibre created with a recyclable ionic liquid, further mechanically toughened using a nanofiller. A synergetic architecture composed of minute amount of 0.1 wt% single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) and cellulose matrix achieves the increased (34 %) elongation and the retained tensile strength, thus creating the enhanced (39 %) toughness. Such a unique enhancement is different from diverse fillers generally known to decrease the elongation in return for the increased strength. To fully draw the reinforcement, controlling the bundled CNT particle size analogous to cellulose microfibril is essential. Moreover, the CNTs are advantageous to a high throughput, and maximum take-up rate of the wet-spun fibre is boosted (30 %).