TY - JOUR
T1 - Simplification of gel point characterization of cellulose nano and microfiber suspensions
AU - Sanchez-Salvador, Jose Luis
AU - Monte, M. Concepcion
AU - Negro, Carlos
AU - Batchelor, Warren
AU - Garnier, Gil
AU - Blanco, Angeles
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank the Economy and Competitiveness Ministry of Spain for the support of the project with reference CTQ2017-85654-C2-2-R, The Community of Madrid for the support to the Program Retoprosost2-S2018/EMT-4459 as well as the support of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Banco de Santander for the grant of J.L. Sanchez-Salvador (CT17/17). Warren Batchelor and Gil Garnier wish to thank the Australian Research Council, Australian Paper, Carter Holt Harvey, Circa, Norske Skog and Visy for their support through the Industry Transformation Research Hub grant IH130100016.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/6/17
Y1 - 2021/6/17
N2 - Abstract: Nanocellulose is an emerging material that needs to be well characterized to control its performance during industrial applications. Gel point (Øg) is a convenient parameter commonly used to estimate the aspect ratio (AR) of cellulose nano/microfibers (CNFs/CMFs), providing critical information on the nanofiber network. However, its estimation requires many sedimentation experiments, tedious and time consuming. In this study, a simpler and faster technique is presented to estimate Øg, based on one or two sedimentation experiments, reducing the experiments by a factor of at least 2.5. Here, this new methodology is successfully validated by using the Øg of different CNF/CMF hydrogels calculated with the traditional methodology, showing an error lower than 7%. The error in the estimation of the AR is lower than 3% in all cases. Furthermore, the two mathematical models currently used to estimate Øg, the smoothing spline and the quadratic fit, are compared and the mathematical assumptions improved. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]
AB - Abstract: Nanocellulose is an emerging material that needs to be well characterized to control its performance during industrial applications. Gel point (Øg) is a convenient parameter commonly used to estimate the aspect ratio (AR) of cellulose nano/microfibers (CNFs/CMFs), providing critical information on the nanofiber network. However, its estimation requires many sedimentation experiments, tedious and time consuming. In this study, a simpler and faster technique is presented to estimate Øg, based on one or two sedimentation experiments, reducing the experiments by a factor of at least 2.5. Here, this new methodology is successfully validated by using the Øg of different CNF/CMF hydrogels calculated with the traditional methodology, showing an error lower than 7%. The error in the estimation of the AR is lower than 3% in all cases. Furthermore, the two mathematical models currently used to estimate Øg, the smoothing spline and the quadratic fit, are compared and the mathematical assumptions improved. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]
KW - Aspect ratio
KW - Cellulose nanofibers
KW - Characterization
KW - CSAPS smoothing spline
KW - Gel point
KW - Sedimentation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108067109&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10570-021-04003-5
DO - 10.1007/s10570-021-04003-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85108067109
SN - 0969-0239
VL - 28
SP - 6995
EP - 7006
JO - Cellulose
JF - Cellulose
ER -