Comparison of Cellulose Supramolecular Structures Between Nanocrystals of Different Origins

Abstract

In this study, morphologies and supramolecular structures of CNCs from wood-pulp, cotton, bacteria, tunicate, and cladophora were investigated. TEM was used to study the morphological aspects of the nanocrystals whereas Raman spectroscopy provided information on the cellulose molecular structure and its organization within a CNC. Dimensional differences between the CNCs were found to be significant between the groups of tunicate, bacterial, & cladophora and pulp & cotton CNCs. The former group had the highest aspect ratio whereas the latter the smallest. Based on 380-Raman, the crystallinities of CNCs of different origins were different. The order of crystallinity for the CNCs, from high to low, was cotton = bacterial > cladophora > tunicate > pulp. Another property, water accessibility at the molecular level, was measured using a recently developed Raman method and the results indicated that compared to low accessibilities of tunicate and algal celluloses the accessibility of pulp-CNCs was significantly higher. Additionally, Raman information showed that, between the CNCs, differences between the CH₂OH conformations were present.

Citation

Agarwal, Umesh P.; Reiner, Richard S.; Hunt, Christopher G.; Catchmark, Jeffery; Foster, E. Johan; Isogai, Akira. 2015. Comparison of Cellulose Supramolecular Structures Between Nanocrystals of Different Origins. Proceedings of the 18th ISWFPC (International Symposium on Wood, Fiber, and Pulping Chemistry) held in Vienna (Sept 9 -11, 2015). 2015; pp. 6-9.