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Resin impregnation of cellulose nanofibril films facilitated by water swelling

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Abstract

Flexible composite films were produced by impregnating aqueous phenol formaldehyde (PF) resin into water-swollen cellulose nanofibril (CNF) films. CNF films were prepared using a pressurized filtration method in combination with freeze drying. The freeze-dried films were swollen with water then impregnated with PF resin by soaking in aqueous resin solutions of varying concentrations. Small amounts of PF slightly enhanced the tensile properties of CNF films. The formulation with the best mechanical properties was CNF/PF films with 8 wt % resin exhibiting tensile stress and toughness of 248 MPa and 26 MJ/m3, respectively. Resin concentrations higher than about 8 % resulted in composites with decreased tensile properties as compared to neat CNF films. The wet strength of the composite films was significantly higher than that of the neat CNF films. The resulting composites showed greater resistance to moisture absorption accompanied by reduced thickness swelling when soaked in water as compared to neat CNF films. The composites also showed decreased oxygen permeability at low humidity compared to neat films, but the composites did not show improved barrier properties at high humidity.

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Acknowledgments

Enormous gratitude is offered to Rick Reiner for preparing and supplying TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibrils. The authors would like to acknowledge Benjamin Treml for help with tensile testing. Tom Kuster and Jane O’Dell are kindly acknowledged for SEM and DMTA tests, respectively. The authors would also like to thank Joseph Jakes and Jane O’Dell for performing AFM scans. This work was partly supported by the national “948” project of China (2009-4-51).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, 498 Shaoshan South Road, Changsha, 410004, China

    Yan Qing & Yiqiang Wu

  2. Forest Products Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, 1 Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, 53726-2398, WI, USA

    Yan Qing, Ronald Sabo & Zhiyong Cai

Authors
  1. Yan Qing
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  2. Ronald Sabo
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  3. Zhiyong Cai
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  4. Yiqiang Wu
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Correspondence to Zhiyong Cai or Yiqiang Wu.

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Qing, Y., Sabo, R., Cai, Z. et al. Resin impregnation of cellulose nanofibril films facilitated by water swelling. Cellulose 20, 303–313 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-012-9815-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-012-9815-0

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