Mechanical imaging of bamboo fiber cell walls and their composites by means of peakforce quantitative nanomechanics (PQNM) technique

Dan Ren; Hankun Wang; Zixuan Yu; Hao Wang; Yan Yu

doi:10.1515/hf-2014-0237

Article

Mechanical imaging of bamboo fiber cell walls and their composites by means of peakforce quantitative nanomechanics (PQNM) technique

Dan Ren , Hankun Wang , Zixuan Yu , Hao Wang and Yan Yu

Published/Copyright: January 10, 2015

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From the journal Holzforschung Volume 69 Issue 8

Abstract

The mechanical properties of cell wall layers of bamboo fibers (BFs) and the interphase between BFs and maleated polypropylene polymer (MAPP) were investigated by means of peakforce quantitative nanomechanics based on atomic force microscopy. This technique is well suited for simultaneous imaging of several important material indicators, such as elastic modulus, deformation at peak force, and adhesion force between probe tip and sample. Furthermore, quantitative local mechanical information could be extracted from the obtained images by means of profile analysis. In case of BFs, the elastic modulus of the secondary cell wall and the compound middle lamella was found to be 21.3±2.9 GPa and 14.4±3.6 GPa, respectively, which agrees well with data measured by the nanoindentation technique. Additionally, this technique was also applied for bamboo plastic composites, and data from the transitional zone (interphase) between BFs and the MAPP matrix, with a thickness of 102±18 nm, could be obtained.

Keywords: atomic force microscopy (AFM); bamboo fibers; compound middle lamella (CML); fiber reinforced polymer composites (FRPCs); interphase in composites; mechanical imaging; peakforce quantitative nanomechanics (PQNM); quantitative nanomechanics; secondary cell wall (SW)

Corresponding author: Yan Yu, Department of Biomaterials, International Center for Bamboo and Rattan, No. 8, Futong Eastern Street, Wangjing Area, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100102, P.R. China, Phone: +86-10-84789812, Fax: +86-10-84238052, e-mail: yuyan9812@icbr.ac.cn; and SFA and Beijing Co-built Key Laboratory of Bamboo and Rattan Science and Technology, State Forestry Administration, Beijing, 100102, P.R. China

aThese authors contributed equally to this work.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Special Research Funds for Forestry Public Welfare of China (201404510) and the National Science Foundation of China (31070491) for their financial support for this research. We also thank Mr. Oliver Frith of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) for his revision of this manuscript.

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Received: 2014-8-29

Accepted: 2014-12-3

Published Online: 2015-1-10

Published in Print: 2015-10-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/hf-2014-0237

Keywords for this article

atomic force microscopy (AFM); bamboo fibers; compound middle lamella (CML); fiber reinforced polymer composites (FRPCs); interphase in composites; mechanical imaging; peakforce quantitative nanomechanics (PQNM); quantitative nanomechanics; secondary cell wall (SW)