Characterization of cellulose nanofibril reinforced polybutylene succinate biocomposite

The environment friendly cellulose nanofibrils obtained from natural cellulose presents unique opportunity for developing a sustainable end product. The beneficial characteristics of cellulose nanofibrils are biocompatibility, low toxicity, suitable surface chemistry and useful physical properties. In the current study, the polybutylene succinate (PBS) with five levels of cellulose nanofibril (NFC) is being developed by using twin extruder. The differential scanning calorimeter results demonstrate that the addition of NFC has insignificant effect on the thermal behavior but it improves the tensile mechanical properties of thermoplastic PBS. The tensile strength reaches upto 30.81 MPA and elastic modulus increases upto 1.5 GPa with the addition of 10% cellulose nanofibril in polybutylene succinate. The rheological analysis shows that the complex viscosity η* of NFC/PBS presents the shear thinning behavior. The decrease in contact angle upto 70.7o with the addition of NFC in PBS matrix is related to its hydrophilic behavior which is also proved by the higher diffusion coefficient. Dynamic mechanical analysis was employed to characterize storage modulus G’ which increased by 1470 MPa due to the rise in PBS stiffness when 10% NFC was added. Finally, the interaction of cellulose nanofibrils in the polybutylene succinate matrix is evaluated by using fracture surface and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.