Nanocomposites (Apr 2019)
Preparation of high-performance cellulose composite membranes from LiOH/urea solvent system
Abstract
New green solvent system alkali (such as NaOH and LiOH)/urea which could rapidly dissolve cellulose could be potentially used to prepare high-performance regenerated cellulose materials with low cost. Pure regenerated cellulose materials have relatively low strength inherent effects. In this work, we choose TEMPO-oxide cellulose nanofiber (CNF) and graphene oxide (GO) as fillers to prepare isotropic regenerated cellulose membrane (RCM) with significantly enhanced mechanical properties. Dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) test shows that RCM with content of 5 wt% CNF has the maximum enhancement value of 32.5% improvement comparing with pure RCM. And RCM with 0.4 wt% GO has the maximum improvement of 17.9%. Mechanical properties decrease with further increasing filler contents. We employ transmission electron microscopy to confirm the structure of fillers in solution and scanning electron microscopy to observe the microstructures of these RCMs. The results are consistent with DMA tests. In addition, XRD results confirm that the crystal structure of RCMs is the same with RCMs without filler. Thermogravimetric analyses results indicate that RCMs keep great thermal stability below 300 °C. Transmittance (Tr) property is carried out by UV–Vis spectroscopy. Pure RCMs and CNF/RCMs keep high transparency at the wavelength of 800 nm. Transparency of RCMs with GO decrease quickly when the content of GO increases. In conclusion, the enhancement mechanism is proposed as the addition of fillers makes up the defects in RCMs. Furthermore, CNF illustrates large aspect ratio which is beneficial for stress transfer. As for GO, polar groups on surface provide strong interaction with the matrix. This is the first time that the enhancement effects of different fillers are systematically analyzed and compared for RCMs system. Our work could benefit the selection of appropriate fillers for such green solvent system and expand its range of applications.
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