SCALABILITY POTENTIAL OF NANOCELLULOSE GLASS FIBER COATINGS FOR LIGHTWEIGHT COMPOSITES

摘要

High levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector have sparked a rise in demand for lightweight materials in automotive manufacturing. Developing a material with the appropriate balance of performance, cost, and weight to displace existing structural technologies has proven challenging, however. Some promise has been shown in the use of nanocellulose as a secondary reinforcement phase in fiber-reinforced composites, but process scalability remains a significant barrier to their incorporation at the manufacturer level. Coating the fiber surface with nanocellulose is a conceptually scalable approach to enhancing composite properties through toughening of the fiber-matrix interphase. However, while improvements in mechanical properties have been observed via this approach, the relationship between processing methodology and surface coating properties has yet to be thoroughly studied. This work aims to demonstrate the scalability of nanocellulose fiber coatings and their associated application space using different coating processes. Two scalable thin film deposition methods, slot die and spray coating, will be evaluated. The characteristics of fiber coatings achieved using these methods will be compared using SEM, XPS, and TGA to establish specific advantages of each process. Composite interfacial mechanical properties will also be compared against each other and against lab scale results.