Interfacial Mechanisms of Water Vapor Sorption into Cellulose Nanofibril Films as Revealed by Quantitative Models

Minna Hakalahti, Marco Faustini, Cédric Boissière, Eero Kontturi, Tekla Tammelin

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    45 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Humidity is an efficient instrument for facilitating changes in local architectures of two-dimensional surfaces assembled from nanoscaled biomaterials. Here, complementary surface-sensitive methods are used to collect explicit and precise experimental evidence on the water vapor sorption into (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO) oxidized cellulose nanofibril (CNF) thin film over the relative humidity (RH) range from 0 to 97%. Changes in thickness and mass of the film due to water vapor uptake are tracked using spectroscopic ellipsometry and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring, respectively. Experimental data is evaluated by the quantitative Langmuir/Flory-Huggins/clustering model and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller model. The isotherms coupled with the quantitative models unveil distinct regions of predominant sorption modes: specific sorption of water molecules below 10% RH, multilayer build-up between 10 to 75% RH, and clustering of water molecules above 75% RH. The study reveals the sorption mechanisms underlying the well-known water uptake behavior of TEMPO oxidized CNF directly at the gas-solid interface.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2951-2958
    JournalBiomacromolecules
    Volume18
    Issue number9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 11 Sept 2017
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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