Investigation on the Preparation and Properties of CMC/magadiite Nacre-Like Nanocomposite Films

Abstract

The layered hydrated sodium salt-magadiite (MAG), which has special interpenetrating petals structure, was used as a functional filler to slowly self-assemble with sodium carboxy-methylcellulose (CMC), in order to prepare nacre-like nanocomposite film by solvent evaporation method. The structure of prepared nacre-like nanocomposite film was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis; whereas, it was indicated that CMC macromolecules were inserted between the layers of MAG to increase the layer spacing of MAG by forming an interpenetrating petals structure; in the meantime, the addition of MAG improved the thermal stability of CMC. The tensile strength of CMC/MAG was significantly improved compared with pure CMC. The tensile strength of CMC/MAG reached the maximum value at 1.71 MPa when the MAG content was 20%, to maintaining high transparency. Due to the high content of inorganic filler, the flame retarding performance and the thermal stability were also brilliant; hence, the great biocompatibility and excellent mechanical properties of the bionic nanocomposite films with the unique interpenetrating petals structure provided a great probability for these original composites to be widely applied in material research, such as tissue engineering in biomedical research.