Development and characterization of bio-nanocomposite mixture reinforced by natural reinforcement (elaboration and characterization)

Abstract

Date palm fiber (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a natural fiber rich in lignocellulosic components. Its high cellulose content lends them to the extraction of tiny particles like microcrystalline cellulose and nanocrystalline cellulose. These cellulose-derived small size particles can be used as an alternative biomaterial in wide fields of application such as automobile production, biomedical, food packaging and membrane applications, that's due to their renewability and sustainability. In the present work, microcrystalline cellulose and nanocrystalline cellulose were isolated and characterized, the extraction of microcrystalline cellulose from bunch branches of Algerian date palm trees was passed via serial chemical treatments, including alkaline, bleaching and acid hydrolysis process. Also, different hydrolysis time of 60 min and 90 min were used to isolate the nanocrystalline cellulose from microcrystalline cellulose. The implemented characterization shows that altered and irregular shaped morphology of microfibrils with slightly rougher surface was observed for microcrystalline with greater thermal stability, that revealed the effectiveness in removing substantial amorphous components of lignin and hemicellulose from date palm fibers. In addition, the features of both nanoparticle samples are very interesting with their elongated shape of nanostructures that imparted them with high aspect ratio (diameter/length), Many studies suggested that it can give a strong stiffness to the nanoparticle network and thus achieve high reinforcing effect in polymer matrices. The degree of crystallinity has been improving from 68% to 71% with prolonged hydrolysis time. At later stage, a selective nanocrystalline cellulose sample of 90 min was used as reinforcing material to develop polylactic acid bionanocomposite. Bionanocomposite of PLA reinforced with different loadings of NCC were prepared via casting solution method by using chloroform solvent, as examined from characterization, nanocrystalline cellulose filled polyacid lactic showed organized and high porous structure as beehive, also, a great thermal stability and mechanical strength were observed. Therefore, the experimental work mentioned can be used in future to produce microcrystalline cellulose, nanocrystalline cellulose from date palm wastes, and can be used to produce nanocrystalline cellulose reinforced polylactic acid bionanocomposite