NCF/Wax nano composites inspired by plant cuticles

• Main Author: Qi, Chuan
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Skolan för kemivetenskap (CHE) 2012
• Subjects: plant cuticles; wax; wax-NFC composties; biocomposites; surface modification
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-146034

Plant cuticles are extracellular membranes covering aerial organs of plants, whose main functions rely on the protection against water loss, mechanical injury from the environment, attack of microorganism, and also regulation of gas exchange. Among the several constituents of plant cuticles, waxes are those that play an important role in their barrier properties. In order to enhance the mechanical properties of wax, NFC was applied in. In the project, mainly two kinds of methods were used to prepare wax-NFC composites. One way was wax and NFC were dissolved in toluene and casted to be a film, another way was to prepare NFC aerogel firstly, and then, impregnated the aerogel into wax liquid. After pressing it the structure was more compact. In order to characterize the properties of samples, SEM, XRD, TGA, DSC, Contact angle testing, tensile test and oxygen permeability methods were applied in.