Thermoset nanocomposite foams

Few examples of nanocomposites in which the cellulosic nanostructure is used in biobased thermosets can be also foimd. Due to the fact that these environment friendly composites suffer from several limitations, such as low mechanical properties due to low strength in reinforcement plus inadequate interfacial strength, and that cellulose nanostructures have been shown to have significant potential as a reinforcement, the possibility of using cellulose nanofibers as reinforcements in a bio-derived resin was revised. In Masoodi et al. [200], cellulose nanofibers were used as reinforcements in the forms of layered films, while in Lee et al. [201] the stability of the gas-soybean oil foam templates and the mechanical properties of the polymer nanocomposite foams are enhanced upon the addition of bacterial cellulose nanofibrils. Other examples of biobased thermosets containing cellulosic nanoreinforcements are the work of Shibata [202] in which the use of a biobased epoxy was revised, and systems in which cellulose nanocrystals are incorporated in biobased polyurethanes [203,204], Few examples exist also in the literature on the polymerization of furfuryl alcohol in presence of CNR [205,206] in these papers, the authors established the feasibility of producing furfuryl... 

One-step reactive foaming is typical for thermoset polymers. A good example is PU/cIay nanocomposite foams [14,15], where a physical blowing agent, such as pentane, is mixed with monomers and clay nanoparticles. Reaction exotherm leads to a tanperature jump and foaming. Most thermoplastic nanocomposite foams, to date are synthesized via a two-step process the nanocomposite is synthesized first and followed by foaming. 

Thermoset foams usually have large pore sizes, sometimes on the millimeter scale. There is very little literature available on thermoset nanocomposites blend. Most of the literature is concerned... 

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