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Fabrication of mechanically robust and UV-resistant aramid fiber-based composite paper by adding nano-TiO2 and nanofibrillated cellulose

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Abstract

Aramid fiber-based composite paper is widely used as an engineering material that is often used in outdoor environments. This inevitably cause ultraviolet (UV) damage to aramid fibers. In this work, nanotitanium dioxide (nano-TiO2) was introduced to endow the composite a good UV-resistance while nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) was used to disperse and deposit TiO2 nanoparticles onto aramid fibers by physical interaction. Firstly, TiO2 nanoparticles were treated by (γ-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane to achieve abundant amino-groups (–NH2), which can interact with hydroxyl groups (–OH) of NFC. The results showed that NFC can significantly suppress nano-TiO2 aggregation and result in a well-defined core–shell structure of TiO2 nanoparticles uniformly coated onto aramid fibers. Also, the bridge effect of NFC and the reinforcing effect of nano-TiO2 benefit the mechanical properties the aramid/NFC/TiO2 composite. The maximum tensile index (~ 16.42 N m/g) and maximum tearing index (~ 9.28 mN m2/g) of aramid/NFC/TiO2 composites increase by ~ 43.4 and ~ 26.1% in comparison with the control sample (~ 11.45 N m/g and ~ 7.36 mN m2/g), respectively. Meanwhile, the aramid/NFC/nano-TiO2 composite achieves a good UV-resistant property because of the dominant light-absorbing ability of well-dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles. Therefore, our work presents a green and damage-free approach to achieve high-performance aramid fiber composite especially with great UV resistance.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Key Research and Development Plan (2017YFB0308300, 2016YFB0303300), Shaanxi Province Supporting Plan for Innovative Research (2017KCT-02), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21704058), State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering (Project No. 201727) and Key Laboratory Research Project of Shaanxi Education Department (Project No. 18JS025).

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Correspondence to Zhaoqing Lu.

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Zhao, Y., Dang, W., Lu, Z. et al. Fabrication of mechanically robust and UV-resistant aramid fiber-based composite paper by adding nano-TiO2 and nanofibrillated cellulose. Cellulose 25, 3913–3925 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-1818-z

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