Molecular Dynamics Simulations on the Elastic Properties of Polypropylene Bionanocomposite Reinforced with Cellulose Nanofibrils.

ABSTRACT: Cellulose-reinforced polypropylene bionanocomposites can show improved elastic properties over their pure polypropylene counterparts. We have used equilibrium and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to study the elastic properties of polypropylene bionanocomposite systems composed of cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), polypropylene (PP) matrix, and maleic anhydride (MAH) coupling agent. The components of the bionanocomposite were parametrized for compatibility with the AMBER14SB force fields. The elastic properties of pure PP systems converge for the chains with at least 20 monomers. The ratio of cellulose in CNF-PP bionanocomposites strongly affects their elastic properties. The elastic modulus of CNF-PP bionanocomposites shows small improvement when the adhesion between hydroph

SUBMITTER: Modi V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9565226 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature