Nanocellulose Polymer Nanocomposites: Fundamentals and Applications

The increasing environmental awareness has resulted in a renewed interest in polymer nanocomposites that are procured from biorenewable polymers such as nanocellulose. These polymer nanocomposites off er higher thermal and mechanical properties, transport barrier, thermal resistivity and flame retardance in comparison with the conventional biocomposites. Nanocomposite describes a two-phase material where one of the phases has at least one dimension in nanometre range (1-100 nm). They differ from conventional composites by the exceptionally high surface to volume ratio of the reinforcing phase and/or its exceptionally high aspect ratio. The reinforcing material can be made up of particles (e.g. minerals), sheets (e.g. exfoliated clay stacks) or fibers (e.g. carbon nanotubes, electrospun fibers or cellulose nanofibers). Large reinforcement surface area means that a relatively small amount of nanoscale reinforcement can have an observable effect on the macroscale properties of the composites. The ability to control the material features at the nanoscale and evaluation of their influence on the micro and macroscopic properties provides a new aspect to the development of nanocomposite systems. There has been enormous interest in the commercialization of nanocomposites for a variety of applications, and a number of these applications are already found in the market. Nanocomposites are currently used in a number of fields and new applications are continuously sought after.