Fabrication and Characterization of Nanofibrillated Cellulose (NFC) Reinforced Polymer Composite

Increasing demands of property enhance materials lead to acquire advancement of nanomaterials. Therefore, interest in nanocellulose has been increasing exponentially in recent years. Out of two categories of nanocellulose, nanofibrillated cellulose has gained more attention than nanocrystalline cellulose due to attractive properties such as mechanical, reinforcing and aspect ratio. Reinforcement of nanofibrillated cellulose with synthetic polymers produce nanocomposite with enhanced properties than pure material. Polypropylene is one of the widely used hydrophobic thermoplastic materials and nanofibrillated cellulose is hydrophilic in nature. Therefore, surface modification of nanofibrillated cellulose is necessary for better performances. In the present paper discuss mechanical, thermal and water absorption properties of polypropylene composites with up to 5% loading of silane surface modified nanofibrillated cellulose. Scanning electron microscopic images, Fourier-transform infrared spectra, X-ray diffractograms and thermal gravimetric analysis were used to analyze the properties. The best properties were given by the 3.5% nanofibrillated cellulose reinforced polypropylene composite and hardness, tensile and impact strength values are respectively 7.4%, 12.6%, and 86.1% higher than the neat polypropylene.