Mechanical and tribological performance of bio-based polyamide/nanocellulose composites as sustainable engineering materials

Kneissl, Lucas M. (author), Joffe, Roberts (author), Kalin, Mitjan (author), Emami, Nazanin (author)

Nanocellulose as filler gained interest in recent times due to its exceptional strength and reinforcement capabilities. Moreover, it is abundant, renewable, and affordable compared to other commonly used fossil-based reinforcements. However, research regarding its impact on the friction and wear of thermoplastic polymers is limited, despite proven benefits for the mechanical strength of composites. In this work, polyamide 11, a fully bio-based polyamide, was reinforced with 3 wt% or 5 wt% nanocellulose to produce sustainable engineering polymer composites as alternative to less environmentally friendly materials. These were evaluated regarding thermal, mechanical and microstructural properties, and tribological performance. The incorporation of nanocellulose led to an improvement of compressive strength by almost 25 %, while also increasing the crystallinity and glass transition temperature. The composites maintained a higher storage modulus of up to 1434.9 MPa for the composite with 5 wt% nanocellulose at elevated temperatures compared to 1350.5 MPa of neat polyamide 11 at room temperature. Tribological experiments showed that the addition of 3 wt% nanocellulose caused a reduction of the wear coefficient by almost 90 %. The coefficient of friction was lowered as well from 0.158  to  0.132. A change in tribofilm appearance was observed between the neat polyamide 11 and the composites, suggesting a difference in wear mechanisms. Furthermore, the non-destructive evaluation of tribofilm thickness was enabled by Raman spectroscopy, which had not been previously achieved in this form. Overall, the produced composites have demonstrated potential as sustainable, fully bio-based materials for engineering applications.

• Language: English
• Keywords: polyamide 11, nanocellulose, bio-based composites, characterisation, tribology, wear resistance
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 13 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 32, art. 113138
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-188785
• UDC: 620.3:539.92
• ISSN on article: 2590-1230
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rineng.2026.113138
• COBISS.SI-ID: 292636931
• Publication date in RUL: 28.09.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Results in engineering
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2590-1230
• COBISS.SI-ID: 529862681

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: poliamidi, nanoceluloza, biološki kompoziti, karakterizacija, tribologija, odpornost proti obrabi

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Funding programme: H2020
• Project number: 860246
• Name: GreenTRIBOS
• Acronym: GreenTRIBOS