Abstract
Of the composite materials occurring in nature, the plant
cell wall is among the most intricate, consisting of a
complex arrangement of semicrystalline cellulose
microfibrils in a dissipative matrix of lignin and
hemicelluloses. Here, a biomimetic, two-dimensional
cellulose system of the cell wall structure is introduced
where cellulose nanocrystals compose the crystalline
portion and regenerated amorphous cellulose composes the
dissipative matrix. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and QCM-D
are used to study the water vapor uptake of several
two-layer systems. Quantitative analysis shows that the
vapor-induced swelling of these ultrathin films can be
controlled by varying ratios of the chemically identical
ordered and unordered cellulose components. Intriguingly,
increasing the share of crystalline cellulose appeared to
increase the vapor uptake but only in cases for which the
interfacial area between the crystalline and amorphous
area was relatively large and the thickness of an
amorphous overlayer was relatively small. The results
show that a biomimetic approach may occasionally provide
answers as to why certain native structures exist.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2032-2040 |
Journal | Langmuir |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |