Large deformation mechanical behavior of flexible nanofiber filled polymer nanocomposites

In the present work, the large deformation behavior of high aspect ratio flexible nanofiber reinforced polymer composites is investigated. Simple or successive tensile tests are performed at room temperature, i.e. in the rubbery state. By studying two different types of fibers, namely cellulose nanofibrils and carbon nanotubes, with two processing routes, the role of entanglements and of interactions existing between fibers—within the nanofiber network that can be formed in the material—on the composite properties is highlighted. For cellulosic nanofillers, strong hydrogen bonds between fibers lead to a spectacular reinforcement effect combined with a decrease of the composite ultimate strain and an irreversible damage of composite properties after first deformation (rigid network). When such strong interactions between fillers are limited (soft entangled network or simple contacts between non-entangled fibers) the resulted reinforcement is less important and no decrease of the deformation at break is observed. For carbon nanotube fillers, the evolution of the filler network during tensile test is finally highlighted by in situ electrical measurements.