Influence of alignment and microstructure features on the mechanical properties and failure mechanisms of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) films

The mechanical properties of cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) films critically depend on many microstructural parameters such as fiber length distribution (FLD), orientation (FOD), and the strength interactions between fibers. In this paper, we use our coarse-grained molecular model CNC to study effect attractions CNCs neat CNCs. misalignment a 2D staggered structure with respect loading direction was studied simulations analytical solutions then verified experiments. To understand FLD FOD performance, various 3D microstructures representing different case studies highly aligned, randomly distributed, short long were generated simulated. According study, three failure modes: sliding mode, mixed normal mode defined. Also, comparing effects FOD, FLD, interaction strength, shows that adhesion is only parameter can significantly improve properties, regardless or