Manufacture of cellulose fibre reinforced composites

Highly aligned, discontinuous cellulose and cellulose/carbon fibre-reinforced composites have been produced using the High Performance Discontinuous Fibre (HiPerDiF) technology. With the addition of carbon fibre, the mechanical performance of cellulose fibre-reinforced composites changes from two-phase ductile to linear stiff. With constant fibre volume fraction (Vf), as the cellulose/carbon volume ratio decreases from 100:0 to 50:50, less composite defects appear. Correspondingly, their composite stiffness and strength increase (7 GPa, 146 MPa; 32 GPa, 412 MPa), while failure strain decrease (from 6.2% to 1.3%). To optimise the manufacturing route of cellulose fibre-reinforced composites, cellulose composites with three different fibre volume fractions have also been manufactured. The cellulose composites with an estimated Vf 71% possess the best mechanical properties (8.54 GPa, 143.23 MPa, 3.03%) and the least composite defects.