In recent years, solvents have been developed for a wide variety of natural substrates (i.e., cotton, flax, silk, wood, et cetera) and have also been shown to enhance the interactions of polymeric materials with functional micromaterials and nanomaterials (i.e., carbon nanotubes, clay, magnetic materials, et cetera).  Despite successes at the bench, truly ‘game changing’ technologies which allow humanity to move beyond petroleum-based materials have not been commercialized.  “Natural Fiber Welding” (NFW) is a biopolymer processing paradigm for generating functionalized composites from (primarily) fibrous biopolymer substrates and is scalable to impact the world’s largest industries.  NFW leverages the selective mobilization of biopolymers to create composites that retain critical native microstructures and mesostructures found in the native (unprocessed) substrates.  Moreover, NFW process techniques are not confined to cellulosic substrates.  Our presentation will detail how various process solvents penetrate fiber surfaces and open the outermost fiber shells to chemical derivatization while simultaneously extending and reorganizing hydrogen bonding networks between adjacent fibers.  We will focus on chemical and physical characterizations of welded fiber-matrix composites.  In particular, we will discuss spectromicroscopic data that characterize interfacial regions within NFW composites.

Beyond petroleum-based plastics: Characterizations of functional fiber welded biocomposite materials

255th National Meeting (2018)

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