Reinforcement Materials in Poly((R)-3-Hydroxybutyrate-co-(R)-3-Hydroxyhexanoate Bionanocomposite

Abstract

Waste paper is the second-highest municipal solid waste collected in Malaysia and as current practice, it is recycled for further use in the manufacturing of low-grade products. Instead of continuously utilizing waste paper for low-grade products manufacturing, it can be used as a feedstock to produce high bioproducts such as cellulose nanofiber (CNF). Hence, this study explored the potential of waste paper as a feedstock for CNF production. The waste paper was subjected to a different number of cycles of wet disk milling (WDM): 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 cycles. The presence of nano-sized cellulose was confirmed by FE-SEM micrographs, where CNF with diameter size 20 – 40 nm was formed after 10 cycles of milling. It was also revealed that the obtained CNF possessed appropriate properties as a reinforcement material. The tensile strength and Young’s modulus of poly((R)-3-hydroxybutyrate-co- (R)-3-hydroxyhexanoate (PHBHHx) increased by 19 and 12%, respectively after the reinforcement of 1% CNF. Overall, this study portrays that waste paper could be utilized as a raw material for CNF production, without the need for chemical pretreatment.

Innovative ionic liquid pretreatment followed by wet disk milling treatment provides enhanced properties of sugar palm nano-fibrillated cellulose

“…Because of the placement of mill stones prior to the WDM process, shearing and frictional forces are applied to the outermost layer of cellulose fibers, causing this occurrence. Within is particular framework, cellulose fibers undergo significant high-velocity impact forces and friction when they are crushed between opposed to grinding disks [ 41 ].

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“…2 g. These TEM-based findings are in line with earlier studies that have documented nanofibril widths from a variety of sources, such as Agave gigantea (AG) fiber (4.07 nm) [ 65 ], Nigerian grasses (3–5 nm) [ 66 ], and Gigantochloa scortechinii bamboo fibers (5–10 nm) [ 67 ]. Notably, the dimensions are significantly smaller than the size of an empty fruit bunch (EFB) (17.85 nm) [ 68 ] and waste paper (20–40 nm) [ 41 ]. Additionally, AFM was used as a reference technique for evaluating the morphology and size of the nanocellulose [ 69 ].…”

“…Interestingly, wet disk mill (WDM) is increasingly favored for its remarkable energy efficiency compared to other milling techniques, effectively breaking down cellulose into nanofibrils and yielding CNF with exceptional surface properties and distinctive characteristics [ 40 ]. Yasim-Anuar et al [ 41 ] successfully extracted cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) from waste paper by the WDM method. Their findings reveal that this green approach effectively reduced the size of wastepaper fibers from micrometer scale to 20–40 nm after 10 milling cycles.…”

Optimization of Cellulose Nanofiber Loading and Processing Conditions during Melt Extrusion of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) Bionanocomposites

“…Nonetheless, CNF loading beyond a certain percentage can be detrimental as it may lead to significant nanofiller agglomerations. Several studies have documented that the improvement of polymer nanocomposite may endure immense difficulty attributable to the dispersion of nanofibers [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. The hypothesis is that if the nanofibers are evenly distributed throughout the polymer matrix, the optimal nanocomposite properties can be attained.…”

Facile Preparation of Cellulose Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene Using Hybrid Filler Method

“…Further, SiPs have high thermal stability at temperatures up to 800 • C[37]. For the CNF sample, weight loss started from 270 • C due to the thermal decomposition of cellulose[38]. The TGA result also showed the neat PP almost degraded without any char formation, with the residual of the original sample mass being only 1.3%.…”