High-strength, transparent and superhydrophobic nanocellulose/nanochitin membranes fabricated via crosslinking of nanofibers and coating F-SiO2 suspensions. (1st November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xu, Junfei; Deng, Xiaolei; Dong, Yunyuan; Zhou, Zhaozhong; Zhang, Yuliang; Yu, Jianping; Cai, Jianchen; Zhang, Yuanxiang
• Is Part Of: Carbohydrate polymers. Volume 247(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-11-01
• Subjects: Nanocellulose -- Nanochitin -- Superhydrophobic -- Transparent -- Membrane; Polysaccharides -- Periodicals; Polysaccharides -- Periodicals; Polysaccharides -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 547.78
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116694
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0144-8617

Abstract

Highlights: A simple and reproducible method was proposed to fabricate composite membranes. The composite membranes were crosslinked by nanocellulose and nanochitin. F-SiO2 can construct superhydrophobic surfaces on the composite membranes. 4The composite membranes can increase mechanical properties of pure membrane. The composite membranes exhibited superhydrophobic and transparent properties. Abstract: In this study, nanocellulose/nanochitin membranes were prepared by suction filtrating 2, 2, 6, 6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl-oxidized cellulose nanofiber (TOCNF)/partially deacetylated α-chitin nanofiber (α-DECHN) mixed suspensions. The result shows that, with a 1:1 ratio of nanocellulose to nanochitin, the tensile strength of the obtained composite membrane reaches 115.7 MPa and its light transmittance is 77.6 %. Heptadecafluoro-1, 1, 2, 2-tetrahydrodecyl dimethylchlorosilane (HFTD) modified nano SiO2 (F-SiO2 ), was utilized to construct rough micro/nanostructures on the surfaces of the composite membranes by screen printing, forming high-strength, transparent and superhydrophobic nanocellulose/nanochitin membranes. Atomic force microscope (AFM) images reveal that nanocellulose and nanochitin, with the width between 5 nm and 20 nm and the length between 400 nm and 1.1 μm, are crosslinked with each other. The superhydrophobic nanocellulose/nanochitin composite membranes functionalized with a 2.0 wt% F-SiO2 suspension has a few clusters on its surface. The contact angle of this membrane is 150.1°, and its light transmittance is 70.4 %.