Flexible and transparent chitin/acrylic nanocomposite films with high mechanical strength

Abstract

Chitin-nanofibers (CNFs) of <50 nm in width were successfully extracted from shrimp shell using ordinary household food blender by introducing electrostatic repulsion force, without altering the original chemical structure of chitin. The generated nanofibers were small enough and compatible with liquid acrylic to retain the transparency of acrylic resin films, even at nanofibers share of about 25 %. Young's modulus of CNFs reinforced resin films has been increased 115-fold and the tensile strength 3-fold. The resulting nanocomposites had almost the same bending resistance of acrylic resin films. It is conceived that this finding is of a significant step in advancing the field of optoelectronic technology.