Bio-based nanocellulose has been shown to possess impressive mechanical properties and simplicity for chemical modifications. The chemical properties are largely influenced by the surface area and ...functionality of the nanoscale materials. However, finding the typical cross-sections of nanocellulose, such as cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), has been a long-standing puzzle, where subtle changes in extraction methods seem to yield different shapes and dimensions. Here, we extracted CNFs from wood with two different oxidation methods and variations in degree of oxidation and high-pressure homogenization. The cross-sections of CNFs were characterized by small-angle X-ray scattering and wide-angle X-ray diffraction in dispersed and freeze-dried states, respectively, where the results were analyzed by assuming that the cross-sectional distribution was quantized with an 18-chain elementary microfibril, the building block of the cell wall. We find that the results agree well with a pseudosquare unit having a size of about 2.4 nm regardless of sample, while the aggregate level strongly depends on the extraction conditions. Furthermore, we find that aggregates have a preferred cohesion of phase boundaries parallel to the (110)-plane of the cellulose fibril, leading to a ribbon shape on average.
This communication is a review over the major market and technical challenges and opportunities for nanocellulosic materials on a large scale but in low-to-medium-end markets. Basically, the ...potential use of nanocellulose as a wet-end strength additive in papermaking has been known for decades, but not come into operation because of the high-energy costs of producing these materials. Cost performance compared to starch derivatives is one challenge, and the other is to design suitable dewatering/retention aid systems. Other paper applications are as a surface-sizing agent and as a barrier coating material. Major challenges are associated with the high viscosity of nanocellulosic materials and how to apply the nanocellulose in order to obtain good surface coverage. There are several opportunities in the nanocomposite markets. The packaging sector together with the automotive sector and the building sector constitute large potential markets. Challenges are related to the mixing of hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials so that a good dispersion of nanocellulose is obtained. Scaling up of nanocellulose production processes and procedures for nanocomposite manufacturing in order to obtain price–performance in the various applications remains, as expected, the largest challenge.
The possibility of forming self-organized films using only charge-stabilized dispersions of cellulose I nanofibrils with opposite charges is presented, that is, the multilayers were composed solely ...of anionically and cationically modified microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) with a low degree of substitution. The build-up behavior and the properties of the layer-by-layer (LbL)-constructed films were studied using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D) and stagnation point adsorption reflectometry (SPAR). The adsorption behavior of cationic/anionic MFC was compared with that of polyethyleneimine (PEI)/anionic MFC. The water contents of five bilayers of cationic/anionic MFC and PEI/anionic MFC were approximately 70 and 50%, respectively. The MFC surface coverage was studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements, which clearly showed a more dense fibrillar structure in the five bilayer PEI/anionic MFC than in the five bilayer cationic/anionic MFC. The forces between the cellulose-based multilayers were examined using the AFM colloidal probe technique. The forces on approach were characterized by a combination of electrostatic and steric repulsion. The wet adhesive forces were very long-range and were characterized by multiple adhesive events. Surfaces covered by PEI/anionic MFC multilayers required more energy to be separated than surfaces covered by cationic/anionic MFC multilayers.
Nanocrystalline TiO2 powders of the rutile polymorph, synthesized by a sol-gel method, were treated with water solutions containing, respectively, formic, acetic, and citric acid and glycine in order ...to study the adsorption properties of these organic species. The samples were characterized by FTIR, Raman, powder XRD, and TEM. It was found that HCOOH, CH3COOH and HOC(COOH)(CH2COOH)2--but not NH2CH2COOH--adsorbed onto TiO2. The adsorption of HCOOH, CH3COOH and NH2CH2COOH onto the (110) surface of rutile was also studied by quantum-chemical periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The organic molecules were from the computations found to adsorb strongly to the surfaces in a bridge-coordinating mode, where the two oxygens of the deprotonated carboxylic acid bind to two surface titanium ions. Surface relaxation is found to influence adsorption geometries and energies significantly. The results from DFT calculations and ab initio molecular-dynamics simulations of formic acid adsorption onto TiO2 are compared and match well with the experimental IR measurements, supporting the bridge-binding geometry of carboxylic-acid adsorption on the TiO2 nanoparticles.
The need for more sustainable printed electronics has emerged in the past years. Due to this, the use of nanocellulose (NC) extracted from cellulose has recently been demonstrated to provide ...interesting materials such as functional inks and transparent flexible films due to its properties. Its high specific surface area together with the high content of reactive hydroxyl groups provide a highly tailorable surface chemistry with applications in ink formulations as a stabilizing, capping, binding and templating agent. Moreover, NC mechanical, physical and thermal properties (high strength, low porosity and high thermal stability, respectively) provide an excellent alternative for the currently used plastic films. In this work, we present a process for the production of water-based conductive inks that uses NC both as a template for silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) formation and as an ink additive for ink formulation. The new inks present an electrical conductivity up to 2 × 10
S/m, which is in the range of current commercially available conductive inks. Finally, the new Ag NP/NC-based conductive inks have been tested to fabricate NFC antennas by screen-printing onto NC-coated paper, demonstrating to be operative.
Manufacturing of electronic devices via printing techniques is often considered to be an environmentally friendly approach, partially due to the efficient utilization of materials. Traditionally, ...printed electronic components (e.g., sensors, transistors, and displays) are relying on flexible substrates based on plastic materials; this is especially true in electronic display applications where, most of the times, a transparent carrier is required in order to enable presentation of the display content. However, plastic‐based substrates are often ruled out in end user scenarios striving toward sustainability. Paper substrates based on ordinary cellulose fibers can potentially replace plastic substrates, but the opaqueness limits the range of applications where they can be used. Herein, electrochromic displays that are manufactured, via screen printing, directly on state‐of‐the‐art fully transparent substrates based on nanocellulose are presented. Several different nanocellulose‐based substrates, based on either nanofibrillated or nanocrystalline cellulose, are manufactured and evaluated as substrates for the manufacturing of electrochromic displays, and the optical and electrical switching performances of the resulting display devices are reported and compared. The reported devices do not require the use of metals and/or transparent conductive oxides, thereby providing a sustainable all‐printed electrochromic display technology.
Transparent free‐standing nanocellulose‐based substrates are developed and subsequently utilized in the manufacturing of screen printed electrochromic displays. The optical and electrical switching performances are comparable with electrochromic displays screen printed on plastic substrates. In addition to this, neither metals nor transparent conductive oxides are required, thereby resulting in sustainable electrochromic displays relying on truly all‐organic materials, including also the substrate.
A new gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) based supercapacitor with an ionic conductivity up to 0.32-0.94 mS cm
has been synthesized from a mixture of an ionic liquid (IL) with nanocellulose (NC). The new ...NC-ionogel was prepared by combining the IL 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dimethyl phosphate (EMIMP) with carboxymethylated cellulose nanofibers (CNFc) at different ratios (CNFc ratio from 1 to 4). The addition of CNFc improved the ionogel properties to become easily printable onto the electrode surface. The new GPE based supercapacitor cell showed good electrochemical performance with specific capacitance of 160 F g
and an equivalent series resistance (ESR) of 10.2 Ω cm
at a current density of 1 mA cm
. The accessibility to the full capacitance of the device is demonstrated after the addition of CNFc in EMIMP compared to the pristine EMIMP (99 F g
and 14.7 Ω cm
).
Cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) can be produced in the form of thin, transparent and flexible films. However, the permeability of such materials to oxygen and water vapor is very sensitive to moisture, ...which limits their potential for a variety of packaging and encapsulation applications. Diffusion barrier coatings were thus developed to reduce the access of water molecules to enzymatically pre-treated and carboxymethylated CNF substrates. The coatings were based on UV curable organic-inorganic hybrids with epoxy, tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethylenesilane (GPTS) precursors and additional vapor formed SiN
layers. A total of 14 monolayer and multilayer coatings with various thickness and hybrid composition were produced and analyzed. The water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) of the bilayer epoxy/CNF film was two times lower compared to that of uncoated CNF film. This was partly due to the water vapor permeability of the epoxy, a factor of two times lower than CNF. The epoxy coating improved the transparency of CNF, however it did not properly wet to the CNF surfaces and the interfacial adhesion was low. In contrast hybrid epoxy-silica coatings led to high adhesion levels owing to the formation of covalent interactions through condensation reactions with the OH-terminated CNF surface. The barrier and optical performance of hybrid coated CNF substrates was similar to that of CNF coated with pure epoxy. In addition, the hybrid coatings provided an excellent planarization effect, with roughness close to 1 nm, one to two orders of magnitude lower than that of the CNF substrates. The WVTR and oxygen transmission rate values of the hybrid coated CNF laminates were in the range 5-10 g/m
/day (at 38°C and 50% RH) and 3-6 cm
/m
/day/bar (at 23°C and 70% RH), respectively, which matches food and pharmaceutical packaging requirements. The permeability to water vapor of the hybrid coatings was moreover found to decrease with increasing the TEOS/GPTS ratio up to 30 wt% and then increase at higher ratio, and to be much lower for thinner coatings due to further UV-induced silanol condensation and faster evaporation of byproducts. The addition of a single 150 nm thick SiN
layer on the hybrid coated CNF improved its water vapor barrier performance by more than 680 times, with WVTR below the 0.02 g/m
/day detection limit.
The preparation of carboxymethylated microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) films by dispersion-casting from aqueous dispersions and by surface coating on base papers is described. The oxygen permeability ...of MFC films were studied at different relative humidity (RH). At low RH (0%), the MFC films showed very low oxygen permeability as compared with films prepared from plasticized starch, whey protein and arabinoxylan and values in the same range as that of conventional synthetic films, e.g., ethylene vinyl alcohol. At higher RH's, the oxygen permeability increased exponentially, presumably due to the plasticizing and swelling of the carboxymethylated nanofibers by water molecules. The effect of moisture on the barrier and mechanical properties of the films was further studied using water vapor sorption isotherms and by humidity scans in dynamic mechanical analysis. The influences of the degree of nanofibrillation/dispersion on the microstructure and optical properties of the films were evaluated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and light transmittance measurements, respectively. FE-SEM micrographs showed that the MFC films consisted of randomly assembled nanofibers with a thickness of 5-10 nm, although some larger aggregates were also formed. The use of MFC as surface coating on various base papers considerably reduced the air permeability. Environmental scanning electron microscopy (E-SEM) micrographs indicated that the MFC layer reduced sheet porosity, i.e., the dense structure formed by the nanofibers resulted in superior oil barrier properties.
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