Un des principaux challenges dans le contexte du développement des matériaux biocomposites est de remplacer les matières plastiques à base de pétrole par des matériaux biosourcés. En raison de leurs origines naturelles, d'une résistance relativement élevée et de leur capacité à former des produits transparents, les nanofibres de cellulose possèdent un grand potentiel d'applications dans les matériaux composites. Dans ce travail des résultats ont été apportés premièrement sur l'optimisation des procédés de productions de nanofibres de cellulose par des traitements biochimiques et mécaniques, deuxièmement sur leurs propriétés rhéologiques et structurelles en milieu aqueux et troisièmement sur la production de composites à matrice de latex. Les questions de dispersions homogènes de nanofibres de cellulose dans la matrice et des interactions entre ces composants à des fins de renforcement des bio-composites ont été étudiés en détails. / One of the main challenges in the context of biocomposites development is to replace petroleum-based materials with bio-based. Because of their natural origin, relatively high strength and the ability to form transparent products, cellulose nanofibers have a large potential for application in the composite materials. This work was focused primarily on the optimization of cellulose nanofiber production methods using biochemical and mechanical treatments, secondly on their rheological and structural properties in an aqueous medium and thirdly on the production of latex-based composites. The questions of homogeneous dispersion of cellulose nanofibers in the matrix and the interactions between these components for the purpose of matrix reinforcement are particularly addressed.

This work describes three alternative processes for producing microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) in which pulp fibres are first pre-treated and then homogenized using a high-pressure homogenizer. In one process, fibre cell wall delamination was facilitated with a combined enzymatic and mechanical pre-treatment. In the two other processes, cell wall delamination was facilitated by pre-treatments that introduced anionically charged groups into the fibre wall, by means of either a carboxymethylation reaction or irreversibly attaching carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) onto the fibres. All three processes are industrially feasible and enable production with low energy consumption. Using these methods, MFC can be produced with an energy consumption of 500–2300 kWh/tonne, which corresponds to a 91–98% reduction in energy consumption from that presented in earlier studies. These materials have been characterized in various ways and it has been demonstrated that the produced MFCs are approximately 5–30 nm wide and up to several microns long. / <p>QC 20120928</p>