Nanostructured Composite Materials Reinforced With Nature-based Nanocellulose

A better understanding of the relation between structure and function of cellulose-based hierarchical materials could provide the opportunity for developing new multi-functional composite materials and for designing nanostructured materials structurally optimised, using biodegradable renewable reinforcing materials. In this paper, recent advances by the authors’ research group in the study of nanocomposites, reinforced with natural nanocellulose from both vegetal and bacterial sources, are presented. The extraction process of cellulose nanofibres and nanocrystals as well as the composite manufacturing process are detailed. Two composite systems are considered: one based on vegetal cellulose nanocrystals and another based on bacterial cellulose nanofibres. The presented results concern the morphology, thermal behaviour, mechanical properties and optical performance of those hierarchical nanocomposites.