Title :
Effect of Fiber Alignment on Optical Properties of Cellulose Nanocrystal Films
Author :
Le, Edward A. ; Wei-Chih Wang ; Chao Shih Liu ; Chih-Wei Wang
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. Eng., Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Abstract :
Cellulose based materials display positive uniaxial birefringence. How cellulose is processed and manufactured can maximize this anisotropy. In this study different processing techniques were used to produce cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) thin film. Different processing conditions and techniques were used to align CNC fiber in CNC thin film. After CNC based film was produced, it was optically tested for fiber alignment and birefringent behavior. This study shows that shear casting can align CNC fiber and improve birefringent effect of CNC based materials. Optical studies also helped determine orientation and density distribution of fiber at different orientations. It was found that the birefringence properties in CNC based composite materials are dependent on the incident light wavelength.
Keywords :
biodegradable materials; birefringence; fibres; nanocomposites; nanostructured materials; thin films; CNC based composite materials; birefringence properties; cellulose nanocrystal films; density distribution; fiber alignment; incident light wavelength; optical properties; processing conditions; shear casting; Biomedical optical imaging; Casting; Computer numerical control; Optical fibers; Optical films; birefringent; casting; cellulose nanocrystal; electrospinning; fiber alignment; optical effect; thin film;
Conference_Titel :
Optomechatronic Technologies (ISOT), 2014 International Symposium on
DOI :
10.1109/ISOT.2014.80
