The Effect of Cellulose Nanocrystal Coatings on the Glass Fiber-Epoxy Interphase

Joyanta Goswami; Ejaz Haque; Douglas M Fox; Jeffrey W Gilman; Gale A Holmes; Robert J Moon; Kyriaki Kalaitzidou

doi:10.3390/ma12121951

The Effect of Cellulose Nanocrystal Coatings on the Glass Fiber-Epoxy Interphase

Materials (Basel). 2019 Jun 17;12(12):1951. doi: 10.3390/ma12121951.

Authors

Joyanta Goswami¹, Ejaz Haque², Douglas M Fox³, Jeffrey W Gilman⁴, Gale A Holmes⁵, Robert J Moon⁶, Kyriaki Kalaitzidou^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. jgoswami6@gatech.edu.
² School of Material Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. ehaque3@gatech.edu.
³ Department of Chemistry, American University, Washington, DC 20016, USA. dfox@american.edu.
⁴ Materials Science and Engineering Division, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA. jeffrey.gilman@nist.gov.
⁵ Materials Science and Engineering Division, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA. gale.holmes@nist.gov.
⁶ The Forest Products Laboratory, U.S. Forest Services, Madison, WI 53726, USA. robertmoon@fs.fed.us.
⁷ George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. kyriaki.kalaitzidou@me.gatech.edu.
⁸ School of Material Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. kyriaki.kalaitzidou@me.gatech.edu.

Abstract

This study focuses on understanding the effect of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) on glass fiber/epoxy interfacial interactions. The glass fibers (GF) were coated with solutions containing cellulose nanomaterial. The parameters that were investigated were the CNC surface chemistry, concentration, and dispersing medium, i.e., aqueous solution only versus emulsions. To determine the effect of the CNC coatings on the interfacial adhesion, specimens of a single GF in an epoxy matrix were prepared for GF coating by varying the coating formulations. The interfacial shear stress (IFSS) was determined by the single fiber fragmentation test (SFFT). Following the SFFT, the samples were investigated by cross-polarized microscopy in order to understand the fracture modes which are related to the nature of the interphase. According to the SFFT data and photoelastic fracture patterns, both the emulsion and aqueous coatings containing cellulose nanocrystals functionalized with methyl(triphenyl) phosphonium (CNCPh) improve the IFSS in comparison to coated GFs without CNCs.

Keywords: cellulose nanocrystal; coating; fracture; glass fiber; interphase; shear strength.

Grants and funding

500/63256/P3 Nano and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities