Together with its development partner Dätwyler Schweiz AG, Empa has successfully found a substitution for petrochemical fibers in fillers in materials derived from renewable plant cellulose. According to an Empa press release, the challenge was to blend microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) with water-repellent rubbers. MFCs are receiving a lot of attention in the rubber industry due to their favorable properties.
An industrial process for the surface modification of MFC was developed in two years of “intensive and open collaboration” between Empa’s Cellulose & Wood Materials department in Dübendorf in the canton of Zurich and Dätwyler. Empa writes this will be an important step towards increasing the sustainability of rubber products such as pump diaphragms.
This project was made possible because of the Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency, Innosuisse. The results show good compatibility between the MFC filler and the rubber matrix with strong reinforcing effects, even better than those achieved with conventional petroleum-based aramid fibers.
“This project is a very good example of how valuable Innosuisse’s support is for such successful innovation projects,” says Empa researcher Thomas Geiger. Companies not only strengthen and economically advance themselves through novel products and processes, “but ultimately also the entire location of Switzerland”. mm
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