Comprehensive elucidation of the effect of residual lignin on the physical, barrier, mechanical and surface properties of nanocellulose films

Abstract

We elucidate the effect of residual lignin on the interfacial, physical and mechanical properties of lignocellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) and respective nanopapers.

Nanocellulose in Thin Films, Coatings, and Plies for Packaging Applications: A Review

“…A number of researchers have demonstrated such a process when using nano-fibrillated cellulose (Nakagaito and Yano 2004Henriksson et al 2008;Nogi et al 2009;Syverud and Stenius 2009;Sehaqui et al 2010Sehaqui et al , 2011Larsson et al 2012;Hu et al 2013;Rojo et al 2015). Keshvarzi et al (2015) prepared paper-like films from a gelled mixture of nanocellulose and zeolites.…”

“…Cellulosic materials are inherently sensitive to the presence of both gaseous and liquid water (Spence et al 2010a(Spence et al ,b, 2011a Belbekhouche et al 2011; Ferrer et al 2012a,b;Abdollahi et al 2013a; Bai et al 2015;Ferrer et al 2015Ferrer et al , 2016bRojo et al 2015;Lundahl et al 2016). There also have been efforts to modify nanocellulose-based systems so as to improve barrier performance in key areas.…”

“…Slower dewatering during paper forming has been observed (Taipale et al 2010), though residual lignin and added cationic polymers have been found to be helpful to promote dewatering in such cases. Otherwise, the dewatering is too slow due to the high surface area of nanocellulose, which has more capacity to hold water than conventional cellulose (Taipale et al 2010;Rojo et al 2015). …”

“…Accordingly, various researchers have explored ways to render cellulose-based films resistant to wetting (Aulin et al 2009b;Spence et al 2010b;Rodionova et al 2011;Yang et al 2012;Abdollahi et al 2013b;Kisonen et al 2015;Visanko et al 2015). Spence et al (2010b) and Rojo et al (2015) showed that contact angles of water on cellulosic films tend to increase with increasing lignin content within the range from about 1 to 14% lignin. Contact angles were reduced, thereby increasing water-wettability in cases where the films had been extracted with a benzene/ethanol mixture.…”

“…Rather, efforts to minimize penetration by aqueous fluids generally have focused on decreasing the water-wettability of the nanocellulose-based barrier films (Yang et al 2012;Kisonen et al 2015). Measurements of the contact angle of water have been employed as a criterion for identifying promising formulations to achieve resistance to liquid water (Spence et al 2010b;Rodionova et al 2011Rodionova et al , 2012aYang et al 2012;Pereda et al 2014;Kisonen et al 2015;Rojo et al 2015;Visanko et al 2015). …”