What is it about?
UV-radiation, originated from sun, can be harmful for materials, plants and animals. Here we shown that chemical modified nanocellulose can be added to polymer where it works as UV-absorbent. Nanocellulose also improved the strength of polymer, making stronger material.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
For the first time, nanocellulose with UV-absorbing properties was produced. Nanocellulose was obtained by straightforward method, that allows the chemical modification to be performed before liberation of nanocellulose, thus eliminating cumbersome purification steps. In addition to UV-absorbing properties, addition of nanocellulose improved mechanical properties of polymer, being thus bifunctional filler material.
Perspectives
Even though traditional nanocellose has many useful properties (e.g. high strength), simple method to fabricate nanocellulose with other functional properties could further enhance and widen the application potential of nanocellulose. E.g. UV-absorption and reinforcement properties studied here is important in many application, such as sunglasses and green houses.
Dr Juho Antti Sirviö
Oulun Yliopisto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: UV-absorbing cellulose nanocrystals as functional reinforcing fillers in polymer nanocomposite films, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, January 2016, Royal Society of Chemistry,
DOI: 10.1039/c6ta00900j.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
