Preparation and Properties of Polyethylene Glycol Modified Nanocellulose/Polyvinyl Alcohol Composite Gel

The traditional polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel has low mechanical properties and poor stability, which greatly limits its application in the fields of bioengineering and packaging engineering. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been used as porogen and the cellulose nanofiber (CNF)/PVA porous composite gel were prepared by freezing thawing in this study. The changes in physicochemical properties, microstructure and swelling properties of composite gels with different formulations were studied. The results indicated that the CNFs-PEG/PVA gel had a uniform inter-perforated hole structure and good mechanical properties with PEG incorporated. When the mass ratio of CNFs:PVA was 1:10, the average pore size of the formed composite gel was the smallest and the porosity was the largest, and its performance in all aspects was the most excellent. At the same time, the swelling degree can reach 1010, which was greatly improved compared with pure PVA hydrogel. The porous aerogel with high swelling and good mechanical properties prepared in this paper has great potential in the fields of heat and sound insulation and adsorption.