Plastic-cellulose networks

The processing flexibility of plastic-cellulose networks gives rise to products in various thickness, from a material only a few millimeters thick to structural panels up to several centimeters thick, that include [14] ... 

Enabled by the plasticizing effect of water within a cellulose network, a poly(vinyl amine)/nanofibrillated cellulose composite, formed via layer-by-layer assembly, was reported to exhibit mechanical switching upon exposure to water. ° The mechanical reinforcement was dependent on the pH of the... 

In terms of tonnage the bulk of plastics produced are thermoplastics, a group which includes polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (p.v.c.), the nylons, polycarbonates and cellulose acetate. There is however a second class of materials, the thermosetting plastics. They are supplied by the manufacturer either as long-chain molecules, similar to a typical thermoplastic molecule or as rather small branched molecules. They are shaped and then subjected to either heat or chemical reaction, or both, in such a way that the molecules link one with another to form a cross-linked network (Fig. 18.6). As the molecules are now interconnected they can no longer slide extensively one past the other and the material has set, cured or cross linked. Plastics materials behaving in this way are spoken of as thermosetting plastics, a term which is now used to include those materials which can in fact cross link with suitable catalysts at room temperature. 

Figure 2. Continuous three-dimensional network of plastic (polystyrene) linked to wood via a cellulose-polysytrene graft copolymer.

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