Journal of Korea TAPPI ISSN:0253-3200(Print) 펄프종이기술

Cellulose fiber, particularly nanocellulose, which is the most abundant biodegradable natural polymer, is receiving extensive attention as an ecofriendly reinforcing material for biocomposites. However, dispersing cellulose fiber uniformly is difficult due to its hydrophilicity, when incorporated into a fossil fuel-based polymer matrix. However, the fiber dispersion in polymer matrix is very crucial to obtain biocomposites with high performance. Few studies have been reported to perform quantitative and direct evaluation of the dispersibility of nanocellulose in composites, although many studies have investigated the importance of dispersibility. In this study, scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was employed to investigate the morphological characteristics and dispersion pattern of cellulose fibers in polypropylene composites. Furthermore, the dispersibility of fibers was measured using the fiber area ratio from cross-sectional images obtained using SEM and EDS. The similarity between the two evaluation methods was examined using the Bland-Altman plot, revealing a significant level of agreement between the two methods.