Reinforcing Linear Low-Density Polyethylene with Surfactant-Treated Microfibrillated Cellulose

Abstract

Due to its excellent mechanical properties and reinforcement abilities, cellulose has become a promising candidate for developing nanocomposites. However, cellulose agglomeration is an issue that must be solved. In this study, we treated microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) with a mixture of the non-ionic surfactants Span80 and Tween80 (ratio of 1:1) in order to prevent the intermolecular hydrogen bond aggregation of MFC during the process of MFC drying. We used a conical twin-screw extruder to melt compounds for the surfactant-treated MFC and powdered LLDPE. Furthermore, the extruded mixture was hot-pressed into a film, and we also tested the properties of the composite film. We can conclude that there was no agglomeration in the composite film according to microscopic observations and light transmittance test results. Furthermore, the dispersion of the surfactant-treated MFC (STMFC) was uniform until the STMFC filler increased to 10 wt%. The mechanical test results show that when the content of STMFC filler was 10 wt%, the mechanical properties of the composite were optimal. Compared to LLDPE, the STMFC/LLDPE composite film had an increase of 41.03% in tensile strength and an increase of 106.35% in Young’s modulus. Under this system, the DSC results show that the melting point of LLDPE increased from 125 to 131 °C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the addition of STMFC did not change the crystallinity of the STMFC/LDPE composites, although the crystallite size increased.

A study of optimum processing parameters and abnormal parameter identification of the twin-screw co-rotating extruder mixing process based on the distribution and dispersion properties for SiO2/low-density polyethylene nano-composites

“…Firstly, the single-quality optimum process parameters are used for the experiment, and then the S/N ratio prediction values of various qualities are calculated by Equation (12) using the factor response table and significant factors in the ANOVA table. The prediction value is compared with the experimental value by Equation (15) to check whether the difference is in the 95% confidence interval or not. The experimental results are shown in Table 8.…”

“…10 Nanoparticle silica is likely to aggregate for high surface activity and specific surface area and, thus, it is incompatible with polymers; however, the compatibility between the two materials can be increased by increasing the dispersion of nanoparticles in the composite. [11][12][13][14][15][16] Bula and Jesionowski 17 melted and mixed different contents of silica and polyethylene for experimentation, and the results showed that the increase in Young's Modulus of the composite was related to the interface compatibility between plastics and nanoparticles and, thus, the interaction of plastics and silica reduced the size of the silica aggregate. Redhwi et al 18 designed the LDPE composite, which allows the interfaces of polymer and nano fillers to be increased by reducing the mean particle size of the filler and increasing the specific surface area.…”

Probing Effect of Papirindustriens Forskningsinstitut (PFI) Refining on Aggregation Structure of Cellulose: Crystal Packing and Hydrogen-Bonding Network

“…The value of the CI-XA equals the area percentage occupied by crystalline peaks over the total area of the diffraction pattern [20]. In addition, the crystallite size was calculated by the widely used Scherrer Equation (3) [21]:…”

Well-Dispersed Cellulose Nanofiber in Low Density Polyethylene Nanocomposite by Liquid-Assisted Extrusion

“…Owing to its superior properties, many studies have been conducted to determine CNF potentials in various field ranging from household materials to high-tech industrial applications [5]. CNF is a promising renewable nanomaterial that can replace the use of non-renewable materials in numerous products manufacturing, mainly as a reinforcement material for the production of nanocomposite [6][7][8].…”