This work describes the measurement and comparison of several important properties of native cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), such as crystallinity, morphology, aspect ratio, and surface chemistry. Measurement of the fundamental properties of seven different CNCs/CNFs, from raw material sources (bacterial, tunicate, and wood) using typical hydrolysis conditions (acid, enzymatic, mechanical, and 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxyl (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation), was accomplished using a variety of measurement methods. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and 13C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were used to conclude that CNCs, which are rodlike in appearance, have a higher crystallinity than CNFs, which are fibrillar in appearance. CNC aspect ratio distributions were measured and ranged from 148±147 for tunicate-CNCs to 23±12 for wood-CNCs. Hydrophobic interactions, measured using inverse gas chromatography (IGC), were found to be an important contribution to the total surface energy of both types of cellulose. In all cases, a trace amount of naturally occurring fluorescent compounds was observed after hydrolysis. Confocal and Raman microscopy were used to confirm that the fluorescent species were unique for each cellulose source, and demonstrated that such methods can be useful for monitoring purity during CNC/CNF processing. This study reveals the broad, tunable, multidimensional material space in which CNCs and CNFs exist.

where Cy ) c-C 6 H 11 ) and two POSS-siloxane copolymers [Cy 8 Si 8 O 11 -(OSiMe 2 ) n O-] (n ) 1, oligomer average 5.4) has been studied in argon, nitrogen, and under vacuum from 30 to 1000 °C. Product gases were analyzed by TGA-FTIR and mass spectroscopy. Analysis of the chars was conducted using cross-polarized (CP) and magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, density measurements, and gas adsorption analysis. All of the POSS macromers showed a propensity toward sublimation, while the POSS-siloxane copolymers underwent a complex depolymerization-decomposition process. For the copolymer [Cy 8 Si 8 O 11 -(OSiMe 2 ) 5.4 O-] this process included the evolution of cyclic dimethylsiloxanes at 400 °C, cyclohexyl hydrocarbons from 450 to 550 °C, and H 2 liberation from 700 to 1000 °C. Loss of the silsesquioxane "cage" structure occurred upon heating from 450-650 °C and after the evolution of most of the pyrolysis gases. Changes in both char porosity and density accompanied the structural rearrangements. The activation energies for pyrolysis under argon or nitrogen was 56 ( 9 kcal/mol and for oxidation in air was 20 ( 4 kcal/mol.

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Monoalkyl-and dialkyl-imidazolium surfactants were used to prepare organically modified montmorillonites with markedly improved thermal stability in comparison with their alkyl-ammonium equivalents (the decomposition temperatures increased by ca. 100°C). Such an increase in the thermal stability affords the opportunity to form syndiotactic polystyrene (s-PS)/imidazolium-montmorillonite nanocomposites even under static melt-intercalation conditions in the absence of high shear rates or solvents. Upon nanocomposite formation, s-PS exhibited an improvement in the thermal stability in comparison with neat s-PS, and the ␤-crystal form of s-PS became dominant. This crystallization response agrees with previous studies of s-PS/pyridinium-montmorillonite hybrids and is tentatively attributed to a heterogeneous nucleation action by the inorganic fillers.

We investigate the effects of mixing a colloidal suspension of tunicate-derived cellulose nanocrystals (t-CNCs) with aqueous colloidal suspensions of two protein diblock copolymers, EC and CE, which bear two different self-assembling domains (SADs) derived from elastin (E) and the coiled-coil region of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (C). The resulting aqueous mixtures reveal improved mechanical integrity for the CE+t-CNC mixture, which exhibits an elastic gel network. This is in contrast to EC+t-CNC, which does not form a gel, indicating that block orientation influences the ability to interact with t-CNCs. Surface analysis and interfacial characterization indicate that the differential mechanical properties of the two samples are due to the prevalent display of the E domain by CE, which interacts more with t-CNCs leading to a stronger network with t-CNCs. On the other hand, EC, which is predominantly C-rich on its surface, does not interact as much with t-CNCs. This suggests that the surface characteristics of the protein polymers, due to folding and self-assembly, are important factors for the interactions with t-CNCs, and a significant influence on the overall mechanical properties. These results have interesting implications for the understanding of cellulose hydrophobic interactions, natural biomaterials and the development of artificially assembled bionanocomposites.