TY - JOUR
T1 - Optical and mechanical properties of nanofibrillated cellulose
T2 - toward a robust platform for next-generation green technologies
AU - Simão, Claudia D.
AU - Reparaz, Juan S.
AU - Wagner, Markus R.
AU - Graczykowski, Bartlomiej
AU - Kreuzera, Martin
AU - Ruiz-Blanco, Yasser B.
AU - García, Yamila
AU - Malho, Jani-Markus
AU - Goni, Alejandro R.
AU - Ahopelto, Jouni
AU - Sotomayor Torres, Clivia M.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Nanofibrillated cellulose, a polymer that can be obtained
from one of the most abundant biopolymers in Nature, is
being increasingly explored due to its outstanding
properties for packaging and device applications. Still,
open challenges in engineering its intrinsic properties
remain to address. To elucidate the optical and
mechanical stability of nanofibrillated cellulose as a
standalone platform, herein we report on three main
findings: i) for the first time an experimental
determination of the optical band gap of nanofibrillated
cellulose, important for future modelling purposes, based
on the onset of the optical band gap of the
nanofibrillated cellulose film at Eg~ 275 nm (4.5 eV),
obtained using absorption and cathodoluminescence
measurements. In addition, comparing this result with
ab-initio calculations of the electronic structure the
exciton binding energy is estimated to be Eex ~ 800 meV;
ii) Hydrostatic pressure experiments revealed that
nanofibrillated cellulose is structurally stable at least
up to 1.2 GPa; iii) Surface elastic properties with
repeatability better than 5% were observed under moisture
cycles with changes of the Young modulus as large as 65%.
The results obtained show the precise determination of
significant properties as elastic properties and
interactions that are compared with similar works and,
moreover, demonstrate that nanofibrillated cellulose
properties can be reversibly controlled, supporting the
extended potential of nanofibrillated cellulose as a
robust platform for green-technology applications.
AB - Nanofibrillated cellulose, a polymer that can be obtained
from one of the most abundant biopolymers in Nature, is
being increasingly explored due to its outstanding
properties for packaging and device applications. Still,
open challenges in engineering its intrinsic properties
remain to address. To elucidate the optical and
mechanical stability of nanofibrillated cellulose as a
standalone platform, herein we report on three main
findings: i) for the first time an experimental
determination of the optical band gap of nanofibrillated
cellulose, important for future modelling purposes, based
on the onset of the optical band gap of the
nanofibrillated cellulose film at Eg~ 275 nm (4.5 eV),
obtained using absorption and cathodoluminescence
measurements. In addition, comparing this result with
ab-initio calculations of the electronic structure the
exciton binding energy is estimated to be Eex ~ 800 meV;
ii) Hydrostatic pressure experiments revealed that
nanofibrillated cellulose is structurally stable at least
up to 1.2 GPa; iii) Surface elastic properties with
repeatability better than 5% were observed under moisture
cycles with changes of the Young modulus as large as 65%.
The results obtained show the precise determination of
significant properties as elastic properties and
interactions that are compared with similar works and,
moreover, demonstrate that nanofibrillated cellulose
properties can be reversibly controlled, supporting the
extended potential of nanofibrillated cellulose as a
robust platform for green-technology applications.
KW - nanofibrillated cellulose
KW - optical bandgap
KW - moisture stability
KW - high pressure RAMAN
KW - quantitative nanomechanical force microscopy
U2 - 10.1016/j.carbpol.2015.03.032
DO - 10.1016/j.carbpol.2015.03.032
M3 - Article
SN - 0144-8617
VL - 126
SP - 40
EP - 46
JO - Carbohydrate Polymers
JF - Carbohydrate Polymers
ER -