Mechanical response of multi-layer bacterial cellulose nanopaper reinforced polylactide laminated composites

In this study, we investigated the mechanical response of polylactide (PLLA) reinforced with multiple layers of BC nanopaper. Laminated composites consisting of 1, 3, 6 and 12 sheet(s) of BC nanopaper were produced. It was observed that increasing the number of BC nanopaper led to an increase in the porosity of the resulting BC nanopaper-reinforced PLLA laminated composites. The tensile moduli of the laminated composites were found to be ∼12.5 - 13.5 GPa, insensitive to the number of sheets of BC nanopaper in the composites. However, the tensile strength of the laminated composites decreased by 21% (from 121 MPa to 95 MPa) when the number of reinforcing BC nanopaper sheets increased from 1 to 12 sheets. This was attributed to the presence and severity of the scale-induced defects increased with increasing BC nanopaper sheets in the PLLA laminated composites.