Transparent Multilayer Acrylic Composites Reinforced with Poly(Acrylated Urethane) Filled Low Grammage Bacterial Cellulose Nanopaper

Abstract

Cellulose nanopaper is a material structure that possesses high mechanical performance and is widely regarded as a promising 2D reinforcement for polymer matrix composites. This work explores the use of low grammage bacterial cellulose (BC) nanopaper as reinforcement for poly(acrylated urethane) interlayer adhesive to increase the impact performance of multilayer acrylic composites. The BC nanopaper is impregnated with an acrylated urethane resin and laminated between acrylic sheets to create BC/acrylic composites consisting of one, three, and five layers of BC nanopaper‐reinforced poly(acrylated urethane) interlayer adhesive(s). Both the poly(acrylated urethane)‐filled BC nanopaper interlayer adhesive and the resulting laminated acrylic composites are optically transparent. The incorporation of BC nanopaper into the poly(acrylated urethane) interlayer adhesive improves the tensile modulus by eightfold and the single‐edge notched fracture toughness by 60% compared to neat poly(acrylated urethane). It is also found that using poly(acrylated urethane)‐filled BC nanopaper interlayer adhesive proves beneficial to the impact properties of the resulting laminated acrylic composites. In Charpy impact testing, the impact strength of the multilayer acrylic composites increases by up to 130% compared to the “gold‐standard” impact‐modified monolithic acrylic, with a BC loading of only 1.6 wt%.