Chemical functionalization of nano fibrillated cellulose by glycidyl silane coupling agents: A grafted silane network characterization study

Nano fibrillated cellulose (NFC) has turned into a material widely studied due to its desirable performance for numerous organic systems. Nevertheless, its surface is not very compatible with most organic systems; hence, chemical functionalization methods offer a path to solve this problem. In this study, NFC is successfully functionalized with two silane coupling agents: 3-glycidyloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (GPS) and 3-glycidyloxypropyl dimethylethoxysilane (GPMES) by a simple, direct, and environmentally friendly method. Different analyses have been carried out in order to confirm the chemical modification of NFC. ATR-IR, XPS, and 29Si NMR spectroscopies confirmed the chemical modification that allowed the understanding of the structure and the conformation onto the modified NFC surface. SEM and AFM microscopies were performed to study possible alterations in morphology; a slight change was observed. Thermal properties were also analyzed by TGA analysis. It remains stable after chemical functionalization. Grafted NFC showed good performance compared to the pristine one. It allows a better dispersion into organic systems improving their properties.