Surface Modification of Cellulose by Silane Coupling Agent for Thermoplastic Polyurethane Composites
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초록
내용
As the most abundant polymers on earth, cellulose has been mainly utilized in various industries such as packaging, electronics, aerospace, and biomedical. This research utilized cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) as fillers for preparing composite films because of their biodegradability and their proven ability to enhance performance. However, due to the hydrophilic nature of CNC, surface modification might need to be done to avoid incompatibility with the polymer matrix which might affect its performance. Therefore, we modified the surface of CNC with silane coupling agents to enhance the compatibility with polymer matrices. After that, we prepared composite films with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) which is widely used for composite films because of its elasticity and flexibility. Based on our experiments, it can be concluded that silane coupling agents might be used to modify the surface of cellulose to improve the compatibility with polymer matrix.