To characterize the nano CaCO3 on the mechanical
properties of the porous membranes, stress-strain curves of membranes
were recorded and the results are shown in Table 2 andFigure 4a . The neat membrane manifested a
tensile strength of 4.7 MPa. The
tensile strength increased with the increased adding mass of
CaCO3. Specifically, the tensile strength of
cellulose/CaCO3-0.5 membrane reaches 5.8 MPa. In
particular, cellulose/CaCO3-1 manifests a tensile
strength of as high as 7.7 MPa, which is 63.8% increase compared to
that of the initial membrane. Additionally, the introduction of nano
CaCO3 also slightly affects the elongation at break of
the membrane. The elongations at break of neat CA,
cellulose/CaCO3-0.5 and
cellulose/CaCO3-1 membranes are 6.0%, 6.8% and 5.6%,
respectively.