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Pickering emulsions as enabling platforms for designer polymer-based hybrid materials
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This thesis used Pickering emulsion templates to produce polylactic acid composites with well-dispersed biodegradable nanocellulose reinforcement. The approach creates hybrid biomaterials with enhanced mechanical properties for sustainable packaging and other applications.
Pickering emulsion templates provide highly promising alternatives to construct advanced, polymer-based, hybrid materials with new or enhanced functions. In this Thesis, Pickering emulsion templates were used to obtain polylactic acid (PLA) composites with well dispersed, fully biodegradable nanocellulose. The Pickering emulsion templating approach offers a versatile route to disperse hydrophilic CNCs, with and without surface modification, in the hydrophobic PLA matrix. The rheological, thermal, and mechanical properties of PLA/nanocellulose composites with different nanocellulose content up to 15 wt.% are elucidated in detail. Furthermore, the enzymatic degradation of PLA/nanocellulose composites was studied using the lipase from Candida rugosa and proteinase K from Tritirachium album. The application area of the PLA/CNC composites as foamed insulating materials was broadened by using a CO2 batch process with relatively mild operating conditions. In a next step, we exploited modified CNC particles to prepare functional hybrid materials with designer colors. We used dyed-nanocellulose to color polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). PMMA was selected for its high transparency. The thermal and mechanical properties of the corresponding-colored composites were thoroughly investigated. In addition, the colored PMMA composite possessed good transparency. Finally, phase change emulsion gels consisting of two types of phase change materials were constructed using the excellent stability of Pickering emulsion templates. The gels exhibit some distinctive properties, including high stability, non-flammability, shape memory, and good mechanical properties, and have been explored as an environmentally friendly building thermal management system in model experiments. The materials synthesized and studied in this Thesis prove the great potential of the Pickering emulsion approach to obtain advanced engineering materials for the next generation “green” plastics.
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This paper is not about environmental microplastics; it describes a manufacturing process for combining cellulose nanofibers with polylactic acid (a biodegradable bioplastic) to make stronger composite materials, with no relevance to plastic pollution or human health risk.
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Researchers developed fully bio-based foams using ethyl cellulose and SiO2 to stabilize Pickering emulsions as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastic foams that shed microplastics. Optimized curing conditions (80°C, 3h, 3% benzoyl peroxide) produced low-density, low-thermal-conductivity porous foams with potential to replace conventional plastic foams in insulation and packaging.
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Researchers surface-modified cellulose nanocrystals and layered double hydroxides and co-incorporated them into polylactic acid films, finding that the dual-filler combination boosted tensile strength to 96.8 MPa and reduced water vapor permeability by 38.9%, providing a mechanistic roadmap for improving biodegradable packaging to replace conventional plastics.
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