User:Matthew R Skorski/Notebook/Cellulose Summer 2014/2014/05/19

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Entry title Purpose: The days goal was to mix the thermoplastics polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) with cellulose nanofibers (CNF), ammonium cellulose nanocrystals (NH4-CNC), titanium (IV) oxide (TiO2), and sodium cellulose nanocrystals (Na-CNC). Reference: Megan Channell Safety: The compounds used in lab were PLA, ABS, CNF, NH4-CNC, TiO2, Na-CNC, acetone, and dichloromethane Steps: 1) Weigh out compound to be added to ABS or PLA 2) Add compound to 10 mL of solvent in a small vial 3) Sonicate the vial until the compound was in a homogeneous suspension 4) Weigh out the ABS or PLA required and add it to the vial 5) Sonicate the mixture until the plastic beads have dissolved and no lumps appear in the vial 6) Pour the mixture out into a plastic dish to cool and harden overnight Experimental: CNF was added to ABS and PLA in the following quantities to make a 0.1%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 2.0% by mass mixture of the CNF and plastic. These percents were originally meant to be 1%, 5%, 10%, and 20% but an error in measuring the compounds resulted in lowering the amount of CNF added by a factor of ten. Mass % Mass CNF Mass ABS 0.10% 0.0016 g 0.9987 g 0.50% 0.0050 g 0.9515 g 1.00% 0.0099 g 0.9909 g 2.00% 0.0210 g 0.9792 g The solvent used to suspend the CNF for use in ABS was acetone. However, the CNF did not fully break apart in the solution, even after several hours in in the sonicator. The cooling tray and resulting casting had chunks of CNF located within. Mass % Mass CNF Mass PLA 0.10% 0.0013 g 0.9891 g 0.50% 0.0052 g 0.9954 g 1.00% 0.0097 g 0.9899 g 2.00% 0.0209 g 0.9806 g The solvent used to suspend the CNF for use in PLA was dichloromethane. However, the CNF did not fully break apart in the solution, even after several hours in in the sonicator. The cooling tray and resulting casting had chunks of CNF located within. Attempts were made to grind CNF into a powder to aid in its suspension. Grinding the CNF with a mortar and pestle only flattened out the CNF into flakes.