Crustacean chitin nanomaterial as reinforcement for bio-based polymer

• Main Authors: Maskur, Miftahul Hidayat, Wan Nawawi, Wan Mohd Fazli, Ali, Fathilah, Al-Khatib, Ma'an Fahmi Rashid
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English; English
• Published: Taylor and Francis Ltd. 2020
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/87988/1/87988_Crustacean%20chitin%20nanomaterial%20as%20reinforcement.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/87988/2/87988_Crustacean%20chitin%20nanomaterial%20as%20reinforcement_SCOPUS.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/87988/3/87988_Crustacean%20chitin%20nanomaterial%20as%20reinforcement_WoS.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/87988/; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2374068X.2020.1793638?journalCode=tmpt20; https://doi.org/10.1080/2374068X.2020.1793638
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

In this study, chitin nanofibers with an average diameter of 80–100 nm were extracted from crab shell and used to reinforce bio-based polymer, polylactic acid (PLA). Solvent-casting and hot-compression moulding were used to fabricate chitin/PLA nanocomposite. Chitin nanofibers were first dispersed in PLA/ chloroform mixture before the solvent was left to evaporate naturally, leaving behind chitin/PLA thin film composite. Thicker specimen of composite was produced by filling the dogbone mould cavities with chloroform-free chitin/PLA film followed by compression moulding at 190°C and 25 bar. Tensile strength tests were performed to evaluate the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite at different chitin concentration loading. Increase in chitin nanofiber content up to 5 wt.% effectively improves the Young’s modulus (E) and tensile strength (σ) of the resulting nanocomposite, of which the highest improvement was found at 5% chitin loading (E = 1.3 GPa, σ = 24 MPa). This account for 13% Young’s modulus and 275% tensile strength improvement compared to neat PLA specimen (E = 1.15 GPa, σ = 6.4 MPa). Further addition of chitin nanofiber decreases the tensile strength performance of the nanocomposite because of chitin-chitin agglomeration, which leads to poor dispersion of the nanofibers within the PLA matrix