Technical Note(Vol.63 No.4 pp.297-302)

Surface Modification of Micofibillated Cellulose and Their Composites with Poly(lactic acid)

Masatoshi OYAMA, Daisuke ISHII, Tadashi MATSUMOTO and Hisao HAYASHI

Abstract:Effect of surface acetylation and grafting of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) on mechanical properties of microfibrillatedcellulose (MFC)/PLA all-biomass composite was investigated. As well as the preparation of surface-acetylated or PLA-grafted MFC, grafting of PLA on surface-acetylated MFC was attempted. The introduction of acetyl groups and PLA graft chains on MFC surface was confirmed by FTIR measurements. However, grafting of PLA chains tosurface-acetylated MFC (AcMFC) was not successful, possibly because of the lowering of reaction sites on the MFCsurface. Youngfs modulus and maximum stress of PLA was enhanced by the addition of AcMFC. However,crystallization of PLA was prevented by AcMFC. In contrast, addition of PLA-grafted MFC promoted thecrystallization of PLA.

Key Words:Microfibrillated cellulose, Acetylation, Poly(lactic acid), Graft polymerization, Crystallization