Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are the paragon of advanced green materials that help reducing CO<sub>2</sub> emission in several transportation applications owing to their lightweighting effects. Nevertheless, in these high performance composites thermosetting epoxy resins are mostly applied that are inherently not green. Introduction and successful implementation of cellulose-based thermoplastic polymers would undoubtedly bring a breakthrough in this field providing a renewable, biocompatible feedstock for this industrial segment.<br/>In order to reach high strength for the cellulose-based composite, the carbon fiber surface needs to be modified to improve interfacial adhesion that is a crucial factor to efficiently transfer the physical stress from the matrix to the fiber. Our research aimed at covalently binding cellulose propionate, a promising candidate for the matrix, to the carbon fiber surface to increase interfacial shear strength between the fiber and the polymer matrix. In doing so, we have successfully bound cellulose propionate to the carbon fiber surface by grafting small molecule first with appropriate functional group to take part in the following click reaction or nucleophilic replacement involving the corresponding cellulose propionate derivative (Figure 1). The covalent modification lead to an increase in interfacial shear strength and allowed us to have a deeper insight into the interfacial behavior of these kind of composites.

Cellulose-based carbon fiber reinforced polymers: Intensifying interfacial adhesion

255th National Meeting (2018)

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