A high strength green nanocomposites based on wood veneer nanocrystalline cellulose and epoxy resin polymer

Abstract

This study was conducted to utilize natural thin wood veneers, nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) and epoxy resin to produce new bionanocomposites. The thin wood veneers were used as the basic structure element in the nanocomposites. The NCC was obtained from the chemically hydrolyzed sawdust with diameter of ∼10-20 nm. In this study, NCC was mixed with 3-glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPS) before being dispersed homogeneously into the epoxy resin and thin veneer. The GPS which act as the coupling agent enhanced the interfacial adhesion between NCC and epoxy resin polymer. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) results showed that NCC was successfully treated with GPS. The finding showed that the optimum value of GPS solution required to functionalize NCC was 0.5 wt/wt %. The results on tensile strength tests on the green nanocomposites also showed that the strength improved upon the incorporation of treated NCC into epoxy resin and thin veneer. By incorporating treated NCC (0.1%) into the thin wood veneer/epoxy resin polymer based nanocomposites, the maximum increment value of tensile strength was found to have a 23% improvement compared to the control sample without NCC. The enhancement in the strength properties was expected as NCC possessed high surface-to-volume and aspect ratio characteristics. Through this study new high strength green nanocomposites have been successfully developed.