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Homogeneous dispersion of chitin nanofibers in polylactic acid with different pretreatment methods

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Abstract

Chitin nanofibers extracted from crab shell were used to reinforce polylactic acid (PLA) by extrusion molding. The dispersion problem of nanofibers in PLA matrix was solved by three pretreatment methods, including water pretreatment, polyethylene glycol (PEG) pretreatment, and polyethylene oxide (PEO) pretreatment. The results demonstrated that chitin nanofibers were distributed uniformly on the fracture surface of the PLA matrix with three different pretreatment methods. However, the aspect ratio of nanofibers with was reduced with the PEG and PEO pretreatment methods. Therefore, the bending modulus (MOE), bending strength (MOR) and impact toughness of the chitin nanofibers/PLA composites prepared by the water pretreatment method were much higher than those of the composites prepared by the PEG and the PEO pretreatment method. Furthermore, the reinforcing effect with the PEG method is slightly better than that with the PEO method. Although it was found that both PEG and PEO were good interfacial compatibilizers for nanofibers and PLA, the reinforcing effect of the composites prepared by PEG and PEO pretreat methods was suppressed due to the decrease of the aspect ratio for chitin nanofibers.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by Ph.D. Start-up Fund of Northwest A&F University (Z109021613).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Jingjing Li, Jingfeng Zhao & Jingrong Sun

  2. College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Yanqing Gao

  3. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, Jiangsu, China

    Dagang Li

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  1. Jingjing Li
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  2. Yanqing Gao
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  3. Jingfeng Zhao
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  4. Jingrong Sun
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  5. Dagang Li
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Correspondence to Dagang Li.

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Li, J., Gao, Y., Zhao, J. et al. Homogeneous dispersion of chitin nanofibers in polylactic acid with different pretreatment methods. Cellulose 24, 1705–1715 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1216-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1216-y

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