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Patience is a virtue: self-assembly and physico-chemical properties of cellulose nanocrystal allomorphs

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are bio-based rod-like nanoparticles with a quickly expanding market. Despite the fact that a variety of production routes and starting cellulose sources are employed, all industrially produced CNCs consist of cellulose I (CNC-I), the native crystalline allomorph of cellulose. Here a comparative study of the physico-chemical properties and liquid crystalline behavior of CNCs produced from cellulose II (CNC-II) and typical CNC-I is reported. CNC-I and CNC-II are isolated by sulfuric acid hydrolysis of cotton and mercerized cotton, respectively. The two allomorphs display similar surface charge densities and ΞΆ-potentials and both have a right-handed twist, but CNC-II have a slightly smaller average length and aspect ratio, and are less hygroscopic. Interestingly, the self-assembly behavior of CNC-I and CNC-II in water is different. Whilst CNC-I forms a chiral nematic phase, CNC-II initially phase separates into an upper isotropic and a lower nematic liquid crystalline phase, before a slow reorganization into a large-pitch chiral nematic texture occurs. This is potentially caused by a combination of factors, including the inferred faster rotational diffusion of CNC-II and the different crystal structures of CNC-I and CNC-II, which are responsible for the presence and absence of a giant dipole moment, respectively.
Journal: Nanoscale
ISSN: 2040-3364
Issue: 33
Volume: 12
Pages: 17480 - 17493
Publication year:2020
BOF-keylabel:yes
IOF-keylabel:yes
BOF-publication weight:6
CSS-citation score:2
Authors:International
Authors from:Higher Education
Accessibility:Closed