Composites of Unsaturated Polyester Resins with Microcrystalline Cellulose and Its Derivatives

Artur Chabros; Barbara Gawdzik; Beata Podkościelna; Marta Goliszek; Przemysław Pączkowski

doi:10.3390/ma13010062

Composites of Unsaturated Polyester Resins with Microcrystalline Cellulose and Its Derivatives

Materials (Basel). 2019 Dec 21;13(1):62. doi: 10.3390/ma13010062.

Authors

Artur Chabros¹, Barbara Gawdzik¹, Beata Podkościelna¹, Marta Goliszek¹, Przemysław Pączkowski¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Polymer Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, M. Curie-Sklodowska Sq. 5, 20-031 Lublin, Poland.

Abstract

The paper investigates the properties of unsaturated polyester resins and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) composites. The influence of MCC modification on mechanical, thermomechanical, and thermal properties of obtained materials was discussed. In order to reduce the hydrophilic character of the MCC surface, it was subjected to esterification with the methacrylic anhydride. This resulted in hydroxyl groups blocking and, additionally, the introduction of unsaturated bonds into its structure, which could participate in copolymerization with the curing resin. Composites of varying amounts of cellulose as a filler were obtained from modified MCC and unmodified (comparative) MCC. The modification of MCC resulted in obtaining composites characterized by greater flexural strength and strain at break compared with the analogous composites based on the unmodified MCC.

Keywords: composites; dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA); mechanical analysis; microcrystalline cellulose (MCC); thermogravimetric analysis (TG); unsaturated polyester resins.