Owing to a faster rate of sublimation of the racemic form as compared to the optically pure form, optical purification occurred without any external action or special environmental condition. We believe that the phenomenon of optical self-purification reported here deserves further systematic study as possibly one of the mechanisms leading to the emergence and maintenance of prebiotic homochirality.
This work describes the preparation and characterization of biobased fiber reinforced resins using bacterial cellulose (BC) as the matrix reinforcing phase and diglycidyl ether diphenolate ethyl ester (DGEDP-ethyl) as the biobased epoxy resin. BC mats were prepared by static cultivation of strain Gluconacetobacter xylinus ATCC 700178 in Hestrin−Schramm medium augmented with mannitol in sterile containers. After freeze-drying, the surface of the BC matrix fibers was modified to introduce trimethylsilyl moieties (BC TMS ). Reinforced by BC TMS nanofiber networks were fabricated by impregnation of BC TMS matrixes with the resin mixture followed by hot-pressing and curing. Resulting DGEDP-ethyl/BC TMS composites with 5, 10, 20, and 30%-by-vol BC TMS network loading were formed. The BC network proved effective in reinforcing the epoxy resin matrix. The composite Young's modulus (E T ) increased from 1.22 ± 0.41 GPA for the neat DGEDP-ethyl thermoset to 8.8 ± 0.98 for the composite with 30%by-vol BC TMS . Furthermore, the storage modulus (E′) increased for DGEDP-ethyl/30%BC TMS relative to the neat DGEDPethyl resin below T g (30 °C) by 3-fold (2.27 to 7.7 GPA) and above T g (180 °C) by 100-fold. This work highlights the potential to use prefabricated BC matrixes produced by microbial fermentation along with a biobased epoxy resin to provide highperformance biobased composites.
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