Properties and characterization of electrically conductive nanocellulose-based composite films

Interest is increasing in developing biobased products derived fix m renewable sources and innovative processing technologies that can reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and encourage the movement toward a sustainable material basis (Espert et al., 2004 Pandey et al., 2005). Cellulose is one of the most abundant natural polymers on Earth, and the annual biomass production is about one trillion tons (Moon et al., 2011). Cellulose hbers have been widely used due to their sustainability and good mechanical properties. 

The term nanoceUulose usually refers to the cellulose materials having at least one dimension in the nanometer range. Isolated cellulose fibers or whiskers possess lateral dimensions around 5—20 nm and longitudinal dimension in a wide range from tens of nanometers to several micrometers. The round-shaped cellulose nanoball with diameters of 20—40 nm is extracted from sweet potato residue (Lu et al., 2013). The rodlike polymeric nanomaterials have a low coefficient of thermal expansion, high thermal stability, high aspect ratio, and low density ( 1.5 g/cm ). 

Cellulose nanofibers, also called micro/nanofibrillated cellulose (MFC/NFC), are obtained by mechanical disintegration after the raw cellulosic materials were chemically or enzymatically pretreated to get pure cellulose. Thus, the MFC has a high aspect ratio with a length over 1000 nm including crystalline and amorphous cellulose (Siro and Plackett, 2010). Microfibrillar cellulose (MFC) shows more commercial production availability than hydrolyzed CNC (Brinchi et al., 2013). 

Fillers aud Reinforcements for Advanced Nanocomposites. http //dx.doi.oi l0.1016/B978 0 08 100079-3.00001-6 

Nanocellulose can be extracted from numerous raw natural materials on the Earth. It shows potentials in nanocomposites, paper making, coating additives, food packing, cosmetics, and gas barrier fields. However, producing nanocellulose in an economic and environmental way and exploring its functional products are the tasks for the researchers. It will promote the development of nanocellulose-based hybrid nanostructures. 

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Properties and characterization of electrically conductive nanocellulose-based composite films... 

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