Fig 1.
Schematic representation of CW/epoxy bionanocomposites prepared by slurry compounding.
Fig 2.
XRD (A) and FTIR (B) spectrum of α-chitin nanowhiker (CW).
Fig 3.
FTIR spectrum of CW (a) and ATR-FTIR spectra of the neat epoxy and CW/epoxy bionanocomposites. (b) Neat epoxy; (c) CW/epoxy1; (d) CW/epoxy2; (e) CW/epoxy3.
Fig 4.
(A) TGA (solid lines) and derivative TGA (dashed lines) curves; (B) DMA (solid circles) and tan δ curves (open circles) of neat epoxy (black) and bionanocomposites: CW (red), CW/epoxy1 (blue), CW/epoxy2 (purple), and CW/epoxy3 (green).
Table 1.
Thermal and mechanical properties of cured epoxy and the bionanocomposites.
Fig 5.
Representative stress-strain curves of neat epoxy and CW/epoxy bionanocomposites.
Fig 6.
FE-SEM micrographs of the fracture surfaces 292 of neat epoxy (A), CW/epoxy1 (B), CW/epoxy2 (C), CW/epoxy3 (D), and TEM micrograph of CW (E).
Green arrows point to the bright dots of the fractured CW embedded in the epoxy matrix.