Transparent poly(methyl methacrylate) composites based on bacterial cellulose nanofibre networks with improved fracture resistance and impact strength
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Published version
Author(s)
Santmarti, Alba
Teh, Jia Wei
Lee, Koon-Yang
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Cellulose nanofibers are often explored as biobased reinforcement for the production of high-performance composite materials. In this work, we fabricated transparent poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) composites consisting of two-dimensional and three-dimensional bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofiber networks. Three different composite designs consisting of 1 vol % BC loading were fabricated and studied: (i) composites with a three-dimensional BC nanofiber network embedded uniformly throughout the PMMA matrix; (ii) sandwich-structured construction consisting of three-dimensional BC–PMMA sandwiched between two neat PMMA sheets; and (iii) dried and well-consolidated two-dimensional BC nanofiber network embedded in a PMMA matrix. All fabricated model BC–PMMA composites were found to be optically transparent, but PMMA composites consisting of the two-dimensional BC nanofiber network possessed higher light transmittance (73% @550 nm) compared to the three-dimensional BC nanofiber network counterparts (63% @550 nm). This is due to the higher specific surface area of the three-dimensional BC nanofiber network, which led to more light scattering. Nevertheless, it was found that both two-dimensional and three-dimensional BC nanofiber networks serve as excellent stiffening agents for PMMA matrix, improving the tensile modulus of the resulting composites by up to 30%. However, no improvement in tensile strength was observed. The use of three-dimensional BC nanofiber network led to matrix embrittlement, reducing the tensile strain-at-failure, fracture resistance, and Charpy impact strength of the resulting BC–PMMA composites. When the BC nanofiber network was used as two-dimensional reinforcement, cracks were observed to propagate through the debonding of BC nanofiber network, leading to higher fracture toughness and Charpy impact strength. These novel findings could open up further opportunities in the design of novel optically transparent polymeric composite laminates based on the two-dimensional BC nanofiber network for impact protection.
Date Issued
2019-06-30
Date Acceptance
2019-05-09
Citation
ACS Omega, 2019, 4 (6), pp.9896-9903
ISSN
2470-1343
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Start Page
9896
End Page
9903
Journal / Book Title
ACS Omega
Volume
4
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2019 American Chemical Society. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY)License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,provided the author and source are cited.
Sponsor
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)
Identifier
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.9b00388
Grant Number
EP/N026489/1
EP/N026489/1
DSTLX-1000112931
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Chemistry
MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES
TENSILE PROPERTIES
0904 Chemical Engineering
0912 Materials Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-06-06