Preparation of Nanolignocellulose/Chitin Composites with Superior Mechanical Property and Thermal Stability

To resolve the issues of special processing equipment, cumbersome process flow and high cost of thecomposite material. The poplar wood fiber was used as the raw material, which were effectively crosslinked with chitin bythe simple mechanical thermal rubber milling method, then the high performance nanolignocellulose/chitin compositewere obtained by the binderless hot-press method. The nanostructure, chemical structure, surface composition, andthermal stability of nanolignocellulose/chitin composites were investigated by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and thermogravimetric/differential thermogravimetric (TG-DTG), respectively. Results turned out that the nanolignocellulose was laminated bythe grinding and the composite material appeared layered structure after the binderless hot-pressing. Chitin/chitosan fromcrab shell powder can be effectively crosslinked with nanofibrillarized lignocellulose to increase the contact area ofsurface hydroxyl groups. The static bending strength (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE) and internal bonding strengthof the nanolignocellulose/chitin composite were 34.13 MPa, 7072 MPa and 0.97 MPa, respectively. Meanwhile, theswelling value of thickness after water absorption was only 9.27%, demonstrating the dimensional stability. According tothe profile density distribution, the density of nano-lignocellulose/chitin composites was relatively uniform, whichindicates that the preparation process is reasonable. The nanolignocellulose/chitin composite has excellent thermalstability, since the mass loss of pyrolysis process is lower than the untreated binderless fiberboard. In this study, a new andeffective methods for preparing composite materials was proposed, which provides some research ideas and theoreticalguidance for the efficient development of new nanolignocellulose composite and waste marine arthropod materials.