Enhancing the dispersibility of multiwalled carbon nanotubes within starch-based films by the use of ionic surfactants

Zélia Alves; Bárbara Abreu; Nuno M Ferreira; Eduardo F Marques; Cláudia Nunes; Paula Ferreira

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118531

Enhancing the dispersibility of multiwalled carbon nanotubes within starch-based films by the use of ionic surfactants

Carbohydr Polym. 2021 Dec 1:273:118531. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118531. Epub 2021 Aug 5.

Authors

Zélia Alves¹, Bárbara Abreu², Nuno M Ferreira³, Eduardo F Marques², Cláudia Nunes⁴, Paula Ferreira⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal; Department of Materials and Ceramic Engineering, CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
² CIQUP, Departamento de Química e Bioquímica, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, s/n, P 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.
³ Department of Physics, I3N, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: claudianunes@ua.pt.
⁵ Department of Materials and Ceramic Engineering, CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: pcferreira@ua.pt.

PMID: 34560944
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118531

Abstract

The incorporation of carbon-based nanomaterials into biopolymer matrix, to provide mechanical reinforcement and to obtain electrically conductive bionanocomposites, requires the homogeneous dispersion of the fillers. Herein, it is investigated the influence of surfactant structures on the dispersibility of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) within starch matrix. Three different ionic surfactants, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium cholate (SC), are employed to disperse the MWNT. Films with MWNT-SC show better dispersibility and an increase of about 75% of tensile strength and 60% of Young's modulus compared with films using MWNT-SDS and MWNT-CTAB. Nevertheless, MWNT functionalized with CTAB impart the highest values of antioxidant activity (scavenging activity around 30% in 1.5 h) and electrical conductivity (σ =14.75 S/m) to starch matrix. The properties of starch-based films can be tailored according to the physical adsorption of each surfactant on MWNT surface and/or the interfacial interaction of the surfactant with starch chains.

Keywords: Bionanocomposites; Electrical conductivity; Hydrophobicity; Mechanical properties; Polysaccharides.