Abstract
In recent years, the development of nanocellulose produced from plants for high performance materials has attracted much attention. Nanocellulose has the feature of high strength and lightweight. In this study, we have developed the nanocellulose reinforced composite. Nanocellulose can be directly prepared from wood by the combined process of wet-milling and hydrothermal treatment (hydrothermal-mechanochemical treatment). Water is essential for the production of nanocellulose. Thus, the drying process is required in the compounding of nanocellulose with resin. However, the nanocellulose tends to aggregate each other. We tried several methods to prevent aggregation of nanocellulose in the composite. As a result, the masterbatch method was effective in dispersing of the nanocellulose. The masterbatch was prepared by directly blending the nanocellulose slurry into the low melting point polyolefin, evaporating water. The nanofiber-polypropylene composite containing just 1wt% nanofiber showed high strength and high elongation.
