Research on Preparation and Properties of Cellulose Nanofibers and its Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) Based Nanocomposites

In this work, the preparation and properties of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) which have a diameter of less than 100 nm, CNFs sheet and PMMA based nanocomposites sheet were presented. To fabricate CNFs, chemical treatments combined with grinding treatment were used in this research. The CNFs sheet was successfully fabricated by vacuum filtration, and to fabricate the PMMA based nanocomposites sheet, the CNFs sheet was immersed in the PMMA solution, and cured by heat. The tensile strength and Young’s modulus of CNFs sheet is 64.9 MPa and 4438 MPa, respectively. Due to the reinforcement function of CNFs, the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of neat PMMA sheet is improved by 60% and 190%, respectively. The light transmittance of CNFs sheet and PMMA based nanocomposites sheet is 82.1% and 89.2%, respectively.