Sulfur-containing nanocomposites based on polyurethane and cellulose

Polymer-based nanocomposites reveal considerable improvements in mechanical, dielectric magnetic, thermal optical and acoustic properties compared to the pure organic polymers at very low-volume fractions of the reinforcing phase.1-4 There is an increased use of cellulose nanocrystals as the loading-bearing constituent in developing inexpensive biodegradable materials owing to a high aspect ratio, a high bending strength of about 10 GPa, and a high Young’s modulus of approximately 150 GPa.5 Herein, we report the synthesis of new sulfur-containing polyurethane/cellulose hybrid nanocomposite films via dispersing different concentrations microcrystalline cellulose in a polyurethane matrix. The covalent and hydrogen bonds between the cellulose nanofibrils and the polymer matrix were improved the mechanical properties of the resulting nanocomposites. The obtained nanocomposites were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The TEM results confirmed that the cellulose nanofibrils were dispersed in polymer matrix. Additionally, thermogravimetric analysis data showed an improvement of thermal stability of nanocomposite films as compared to the neat polymer. The superior properties of the novel bionanocomposite materials could have great potential applications.

Keywords:

Polyurethane , Nanocomposite , Microcrystalline cellulose , Nanofiber