초록 |
The brick and mortar structure of nacre has shown remarkable mechanical properties in nature. Inspired by their hierarchically aligned structures between chitin fibers and calcium carbonate platelets, we have fabricated nacre-like nanolayered structures of cellulose nano-fiber (CNF) and montmorillonite (MMT) via vacuum filtration techniques with different CNF/MMT ratio. The molecular structures of CNF-MMT films were observed by scanning electron microscopic and X-ray diffraction. The mechanical strength and modulus of CNF-MMT nano-composite were higher than those of pure CNF and MMT films. Furthermore, the CNF-MMT films have shown fire-retardant properties while containing large amounts of cellulose. Thus, CNF-MMT nano-composite can be a good candidate for environmental-friendly materials in the wide ranges of industrial application fields. |