Development of Chitin Nano-whiskers Epoxy Nanocomposites for High Mechanical Performance and Structural Applications

Chitin is a vastly available resource in the form of waste from the fishing industry in Canada and worldwide. BOCO Bio-Nanotechnologies has currently the infrastructure in place for scalable extraction of CNWs (Chitin nano-whiskers) from crab shells. CNWs are crystalline regions of chitin, possessing high strength, stiffness and aspect ratio, making them ideal for reinforcement of polymer matrices. A significant market opportunity for BOCO is to incorporate CNWs in epoxy matrices to develop epoxy nanocomposite resins with high fracture toughness and mechanical properties. However, CNWs are significantly more hydrophilic as compared with epoxy resins, creating a challenge for incorporation. The objective of this project is the develop processing techniques for incorporation of CNWs within the epoxy matrix followed by a parametric evaluation of the effect of CNWs on the fracture, mechanical and thermal properties of the epoxy resins. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Hani Naguib

Student:

Jintian Wang

Partner:

BOCO Technology Inc

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Nanotechnologies

University:

Program: