Improving the properties of nanocellulose/polylactide composites by esterification of nanocellulose. Can it be done?

The effect of surface modified bacterial cellulose (BC) with hexanoic acid for the use in PLLA/BC nanocomposites was investigated. A processing strategy was developed to incorporate BC nanofibrils into the polymer matrix. It was found that the mechanical and thermo-physical properties of the nanocomposites showed significant improvement.