Cellulose and chitin as fillers for structural composites research, Norway
Chitin and cellulose are multipurpose, naturally abundant biopolymers that are non-toxic to human beings. Chitin is extracted from shellfish wastes such as shrimp, crab and crawfish shells. Cellulose is primarily obtained from the wood pulps. Individually, both cellulose and chitin represent complex network of hydrogen-bonded structure. Though weak in terms of bond energy, this enormous hydrogen bonded structure provides structural stability and rigidity to the respective polymers. There are wide scopes of using chitin as fillers to improve properties of composites, however, there is not much information available.
The objective of the project was to evaluate the properties of chitin and cellulose composites manufactured from micro-particles at various weight ratios. The secondary objective was to use epoxy resins as matrix for chitin and cellulose fillers. Epoxy resins have great potentials as matrix for engineered structural composites. The ζ-potential for the cellulose particles was observed to be -35 mV. Individual cellulose / chitin composites were prepared by wet-pressing. Epoxy composites were made in silicone molds. It was observed that the mechanical strength properties and water uptake of the composites changes with small additions of crab-shell chitins. Future research work of the project is to prepare better performance biocomposites from nano-particles of chitin and cellulose by responsible use of natural resources to meet the objectives of the Centre for Nanocellulosics.
Barun Shankar Gupta, ICE Graduate Member in Norway
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