In-situ formation of thermo-responsive petal-like cellulose nanocrystals hybridized particles towards optimizing mechanical, rheological and dielectric properties of polylactic acid blends.

Enhancing the toughness of biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) blends with minimal filler content meanwhile preserving their thermomechanical properties remains a highly desirable objective. Here, through a simple in situ mixing of PLA with cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and cellulose nanocrystal nanofluids (CNCfs), the electrostatic interaction between CNCfs (+22.6 mv) and CNC (-9.