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Fabrication and Mechanical Properties of Chitosan-Montmorillonite Nano-Composite

Chitosan has found various applications in gastrointestinal stent, biomedical implants as well as an effective absorbent in waste water treatment. However, the material suffers from low strength and large shrinkage upon dehydration. The current project is aimed to develop a process to fabricate chitosan composites with the addition of functionalised montmorillonite nanoparticles and to examine the effect of ceramic content on the mechanical behavior of the composites. This paper describes the fabrication of chitosan with montmorrillonite composites and the mechanical testing of the samples and the mechanical behaviour of the composites, as well as the observations of the microstructure. The effects of composition and microstructure on the mechanical properties of the composite are investigated. The results indicate that the nanoparticles are dispersed uniformly in the matrix up to 40wt% using high speed homogeniser. The elastic modulus increases monotonically with the addition of nanoparticles, but the fracture strength drops due to the defects introduced by the nanoparticles.