Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are used to design nanocomposites because of their high aspect ratio and their outstanding mechanical and barrier properties. However, the low compatibility of hydrophilic CNCs with hydrophobic polymers remains a barrier to their use in the nanocomposite field. To improve this compatibility, poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) was grafted from CNCs containing α-bromoisobutyryl moieties via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. The novelty of this research is the use of a reactive epoxy-containing monomer that can serve as a new platform for further modifications or crosslinking. Polymer-grafted CNC-PGMA-Br prepared at different polymerization times were characterized by XRD, DLS, FTIR, XPS and elemental analysis. Approximately 40 % of the polymer at the surface of the CNCs was quantified after only 1 h of polymerization. Finally, nanocomposites prepared with 10 wt% CNC-PGMA-Br as nanofillers in a poly(lactic acid) (PLA) matrix exhibited an improvement in their compatibilization based on SEM observation.

中文翻译：

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从纤维素纳米晶体的表面聚合甲基丙烯酸缩水甘油酯，以制备基于PLA的纳米复合材料。

纤维素纳米晶体（CNC）由于其高纵横比以及出色的机械和阻隔性能而被用于设计纳米复合材料。然而，亲水性CNCs与疏水性聚合物的低相容性仍然是其在纳米复合材料领域中使用的障碍。为了提高这种相容性，通过表面引发的原子转移自由基聚合，从含有α-溴代异丁酰基部分的CNC中接枝了聚甲基丙烯酸缩水甘油酯（PGMA）。这项研究的新颖之处在于使用了反应性的含环氧基单体，可以用作进一步修饰或交联的新平台。通过XRD，DLS，FTIR，XPS和元素分析对在不同聚合时间制备的聚合物接枝的CNC-PGMA-Br进行了表征。仅聚合1小时后，即可对CNCs表面约40％的聚合物进行定量。最后，基于SEM观察，用10重量％的CNC-PGMA-Br作为纳米填料在聚乳酸（PLA）基质中制备的纳米复合材料表现出其相容性的改善。