Alves, L.; Magalhães, S.; Pedrosa, J.F.S.; Ferreira, P.J.T.; Gamelas, J.A.F.; Rasteiro, M.G. Rheology of Suspensions of TEMPO-Oxidised and Cationic Cellulose Nanofibrils—The Effect of Chemical Pre-Treatment. Gels2024, 10, 367.
Alves, L.; Magalhães, S.; Pedrosa, J.F.S.; Ferreira, P.J.T.; Gamelas, J.A.F.; Rasteiro, M.G. Rheology of Suspensions of TEMPO-Oxidised and Cationic Cellulose Nanofibrils—The Effect of Chemical Pre-Treatment. Gels 2024, 10, 367.
Alves, L.; Magalhães, S.; Pedrosa, J.F.S.; Ferreira, P.J.T.; Gamelas, J.A.F.; Rasteiro, M.G. Rheology of Suspensions of TEMPO-Oxidised and Cationic Cellulose Nanofibrils—The Effect of Chemical Pre-Treatment. Gels2024, 10, 367.
Alves, L.; Magalhães, S.; Pedrosa, J.F.S.; Ferreira, P.J.T.; Gamelas, J.A.F.; Rasteiro, M.G. Rheology of Suspensions of TEMPO-Oxidised and Cationic Cellulose Nanofibrils—The Effect of Chemical Pre-Treatment. Gels 2024, 10, 367.
Abstract
Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) are materials with high aspect ratio. Typically, TEMPO-oxidised, or cationic CNFs consist of long fibrils (up to 2 μm) with very low thickness (less than 10 nm). Derived from their high aspect ratio, CNFs form strong hydrogels with high elasticity at low concentrations. Thus, CNF suspensions appear as an interesting rheology modifier to be applied in cosmetics, paints, foods, as a mineral suspending agent, among other applications.
The high viscosity results from the strong 3D fibril network, which is related to good fibrillation of the material, allowing the nanofibrils to overlap. The overlap concentration (c*) was found to vary from ca. 0.13 to ca. 0.60 wt.% depending on the type and intensity of the pre-treatment ap-plied during the preparation of the CNFs. The results confirm the higher tendency for the fibres treated with CHPTAC (cationic) and TEMPO to form a 3D network, resulting in the lowest c*.
For the TEMPO-oxidised CNF suspensions, it was also found that aggregation is improved at acidic pH conditions due to lower charge repulsion among fibrils, leading to an increase in the suspension viscosity, as well as higher apparent yield stresses. TEMPO CNF suspensions with low content of carboxylic groups tend to precipitate at moderate acidic pH values.
Keywords
Hydrogels; cellulose nanofibres; degree of polymerization; charge density; entanglement; aggregation
Subject
Chemistry and Materials Science, Biomaterials
Copyright:
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