Ionic liquids facilitated dispersion of chitin nanowhiskers for reinforced epoxy composites

Jintian Wang; Zhiqiang Chen; Aaron Qi Guan; Nicole Raymonde Demarquette; Hani E Naguib

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116746

Ionic liquids facilitated dispersion of chitin nanowhiskers for reinforced epoxy composites

Carbohydr Polym. 2020 Nov 1:247:116746. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116746. Epub 2020 Jul 13.

Authors

Jintian Wang¹, Zhiqiang Chen², Aaron Qi Guan³, Nicole Raymonde Demarquette⁴, Hani E Naguib⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: jintian.wang@mail.utoronto.ca.
² Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; State Key Lab for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China. Electronic address: zq.chen@mail.utoronto.ca.
³ BOCO Bio-Nanotechnologies Inc., 40 Pullman Court, Toronto, Canada. Electronic address: aaron.guan@bocotechnology.com.
⁴ École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), Mechanical Engineering Department, 1100, rue Notre-Dame Ouest, Montréal, Québec, H3C 1K3, Canada. Electronic address: nicoler.demarquette@etsmtl.ca.
⁵ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: naguib@mie.utoronto.ca.

PMID: 32829863
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116746

Abstract

In this work, we propose a novel approach to produce a high-strength epoxy nanocomposite using ionic liquids facilitated dispersion of chitin nanowhiskers (CNWs). Samples with 0-3 wt% CNWs and 1 wt% of [Emim][OAc] were fabricated by mixing, casting, and curing. The morphological observations of the ethanol/ionic liquid suspensions by TEM indicated that [Emim][OAc] helped in dispersing the CNWs. The tensile, impact, dynamical mechanical properties, and thermal stability of the composites were further evaluated to access the reinforcing effect of CNWs. Increase of 35 % tensile strength, 175 % toughness and 90 % impact strength were observed upon addition of 2 wt% of CNWs. Thermal stability of the epoxy was not affected by the addition of CNWs. The SEM observations of the composites evidenced that the fracture mechanisms had changed upon CNWs addition. This work shows the advantage of the novel approach using ionic liquids as nanofiller dispersant in fabricating CNWs nanocomposites.

Keywords: Chitin nanowhiskers; Ionic liquids; Mechanical properties; Nanocomposites; Nanofiller dispersion.