Superior mechanical performance of highly porous, anisotropic nanocellulose–montmorillonite aerogels prepared by freeze casting

Directionally solidified nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)–sodium-montmorillonite (MMT) composite aerogels with a honeycomb-like pore structure were compared with non-directionally frozen aerogels with equiaxed pore structure and identical composition and found to have superior functionalities. To explore structure-property correlations, three different aerogel compositions of 3 wt% MMT, and 0.4 wt%, 0.8 wt%, and 1.2 wt% NFC, respectively, were tested. Young׳s modulus, compressive strength and toughness were found to increase with increasing NFC content for both architectures. The modulus increased from 25.8 kPa to 386 kPa for the isotropic and from 2.13 MPa to 3.86 MPa for the anisotropic aerogels, the compressive yield strength increased from 3.3 kPa to 18.0 kPa for the isotropic and from 32.3 kPa to 52.5 kPa for the anisotropic aerogels, and the toughness increased from 6.3 kJ/m3 to 24.1 kJ/m3 for the isotropic and from 22.9 kJ/m3 to 46.2 kJ/m3 for the anisotropic aerogels. The great range of properties, which can be achieved through compositional as well as architectural variations, makes these aerogels highly attractive for a large range of applications, for which either a specific composition, or a particular pore morphology, or both are required. Finally, because NFC is flammable, gasification experiments were performed, which revealed that the inclusion of MMT increased the heat endurance and shape retention functions of the aerogels dramatically up to 800 °C while the mechanical properties were retained up to 300 °C.

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