Tough and strong sustainable thermoplastic elastomers nanocomposite with self-assembly of SI-ATRP modified cellulose nanofibers

Chaoqun Xu; Bowen Li; Juan Yu; Lihong Hu; Puyou Jia; Yimin Fan; Chuanwei Lu; Fuxiang Chu

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121160

Tough and strong sustainable thermoplastic elastomers nanocomposite with self-assembly of SI-ATRP modified cellulose nanofibers

Carbohydr Polym. 2023 Nov 1:319:121160. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121160. Epub 2023 Jun 28.

Authors

Chaoqun Xu¹, Bowen Li², Juan Yu³, Lihong Hu⁴, Puyou Jia⁵, Yimin Fan⁶, Chuanwei Lu⁷, Fuxiang Chu⁸

Affiliations

¹ Nanjing Forestry University, Longpan Road 159, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: xuchaoqun@njfu.edu.cn.
² Nanjing Forestry University, Longpan Road 159, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: libowenctw@njfu.edu.cn.
³ Nanjing Forestry University, Longpan Road 159, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: yujuannjfu@njfu.edu.cn.
⁴ Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), No 16, Suojin Wucun, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: hlh@icifp.cn.
⁵ Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), No 16, Suojin Wucun, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: jiapuyou@icifp.cn.
⁶ Nanjing Forestry University, Longpan Road 159, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: fanyimin@njfu.edu.cn.
⁷ Nanjing Forestry University, Longpan Road 159, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: lucw302@njfu.edu.cn.
⁸ Nanjing Forestry University, Longpan Road 159, Nanjing, China; Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), No 16, Suojin Wucun, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: chufuxiang@caf.ac.cn.

PMID: 37567704
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121160

Abstract

The ingenious design of sustainable thermoplastic elastomers (STPEs) is of great significance for the goal of the sustainable development. However, the preparation of STPEs with good mechanical performance is still complicated and challenging. Herein, to achieve a simple preparation of STPEs with strong mechanical properties, two biobased monomers (tetrahydrofurfuryl methacrylate (THFMA) and lauryl methacrylate (LMA)) were copolymerized into poly (THFMA-co-LMA) (PTL) and grafted onto TEMPO oxidized cellulose nanofiber (TOCN) via one-pot surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI ATRP). The grafting modified TOCN could be self-assembled into nano-enhanced phases in STPEs, which are conducive to the double enhancement of the strength and toughness of the STPEs, and the size of nano-enhanced phases is mainly affected by TOCN fiber length and molecular weight of grafting chains. Especially, with the addition of 7 wt% TOCN, tensile strength, tensile strain, toughness, and glass transition temperature (T_g) of TOCN based STPEs (TOCN@PTL) exhibited 140 %, 36 %, 215 %, and 6.8 °C increase respectively, which confirmed the leading level in the field of bio-based elastomers. In general, this work constitutes a proof for the chemical modification and self-assembly behavior of TOCN by one-pot SI ATRP, and provides an alternative strategy for the preparation of high-performance STPEs.

Keywords: Mechanical properties; Self-assembly; Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI ATRP); Sustainable thermoplastic elastomers; TEMPO oxidized cellulose nanofiber (TOCN).