Cellulosic nanofibers have attracted much attention in terms of high performance, sustainability, and abundance on the earth. Cellulose nanofibers present in plants have uniform diameters (3~ nm), high aspect ratios, high elastic moduli (140 GPa) and low coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE, &lt;5 ppm/K). To isolate cellulose nanofibers from cellulosic materials like kraft pulp, using a previously reported method1) using 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation following successive gentle mechanical treatment in water has a great advantage in terms of avoiding deterioration of unique cellulose nanofiber morphologies and properties. The obtained TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TOCNs) would have potential application in achieving more effective reinforcement and lower CTE. On the other hand, the original TOCNs have hydrophilic surfaces due to carboxylate groups. Therefore, to apply TOCNs as nanofillers for hydrophobic matrix polymers, it is necessary to modify TOCN surfaces. In this study, TOCN surface was modified using various amine compounds and their combinations. The modified TOCN/matrix polymer composites showed extremely high performance in terms of mechanical properties, light transparency and thermal expansion. These remarkable effects were suggested to be achieved by nano-network formation of modified TOCNs with sufficient dispersibility in matrix polymers due to the efficient surface modifications. Reference 1) Saito, T., Nishiyama, Y., Putaux, J.-L., Vignon, M., Isogai, A., Biomacromolecules, 7, 1687 (2006)

Brand-new concept for surface modification of TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers

251st National Meeting (2016)

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