Abstract
The effect of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) on the mechanical and structural properties of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels cross-linked dually by a freezing/thawing method and a cross-linker (borax) was investigated using tensile tests, FT-IR measurements and synchrotron simultaneous small-angle/wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS). The cross-linking with borax and addition of CNF greatly improved the tensile performance of the PVA hydrogels prepared in the freezing/thawing method, e.g., the dual cross-linking resulted in remarkable increase in the fracture strain, the Young’s modulus and the tensile strength. The fiber length effect on the mechanical properties of the CNF/PVA/borax hydrogels was examined, so that addition of CNF with longer fiber length increased the tensile modulus, whereas addition of CNF with shorter length caused extensibility higher than 1000% even at high CNF concentrations. SAXS/WAXS and FT-IR measurements have revealed that PVA was crystallized due to the freezing/thawing process, and both of PVA and CNF were cross-linked with borax, and hydrogen bonds between hydroxy groups of PVA (or/and CNF) were formed, indicating that the multiple cross-linking is effective for improvement of the tensile performance. In addition, the CNF/PVA/borax gel with the multi-physical cross-linking was found to possess the ability of the self-healing.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 19K05594. The synchrotron SAXS/WAXS measurements were conducted under the approval of Photon Factory Program Advisory Committee. The XRD measurements were performed at the Center for Instrumental Analysis of Gunma University, and we thank Mr. Sakamoto of the Center for his technical assistance of the measurements.
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Takeno, H., Inoguchi, H. & Hsieh, WC. Mechanical and structural properties of cellulose nanofiber/poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels cross-linked by a freezing/thawing method and borax. Cellulose 27, 4373–4387 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03083-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03083-z