CNFs present renewable and biodegradable characteristics, as they are obtained from the mechanical disintegration and/or chemical treatments of vegetable fibers. By homogeneously dispersing them in different materials, they improve the strength properties of the resulting composite, without significantly increasing its mass. However, due to their polar properties, they are only compatible with hydrophilic matrices.
We developed a laboratory-level prototype that considers the partial functionalization of CNFs with acetyl groups. The resulting acetylated CNFs have lower polarity, allowing the reinforcement of hydrophobic matrices, and their homogeneous dispersion in the materials of interest is much higher, due to steric reasons.
The process is in a pilot scale-up stage (TRL 5).
