Conversion of wood-biopolymers into macrofibers with tunable surface energy via dry-jet wet-spinning

Abstract

Surface chemistry of regenerated all-wood-biopolymer fibers that are fine-tuned by composition of cellulose, lignin and xylan is elucidated via revealing their surface energy and adhesion. Xylan additive resulted in thin fibers and decreased surface energy of the fiber outer surfaces compared to the cellulose fibers, or when lignin was used as an additive. Lignin increased the water contact angle on the fiber surface and decreased adhesion force between the fiber cross section and a hydrophilic probe, confirming that lignin reduced fiber surface affinity to water. Lignin and xylan enabled fiber decoration with charged groups that could tune the adhesion force between the fiber and an AFM probe. The fibers swelled in water: the neat cellulose fiber cross section area increased 9.2%, the fibers with lignin as the main additive 9.1%, with xylan 6.8%, and the 3-component fibers 5.5%. This indicates that dimensional stability in elevated humidity is improved in the case of 3-component fiber compared to 2-component fibers. Xylan or lignin as an additive neither improved strength nor elongation at break. However, improved deformability was achieved when all the three components were incorporated into the fibers.Graphical Abstract Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s10570-018-1902-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Close Packing of Cellulose and Chitosan in Regenerated Cellulose Fibers Improves Carbon Yield and Structural Properties of Respective Carbon Fibers

“…This deviation confirms that the optimum spinning conditions can vary depending on the type of biopolymer or biopolymer blend dissolved in the IL. 39 , 40 …”

“…The decrease in the tenacity of Ioncell cellulose fibers with the incorporation of additives, such as lignin and xylan, has been reported previously. 25 , 40 With the addition of 10 wt % organsolv and kraft lignin, the tenacity of the cellulose fiber decreased by 12 and 8%, respectively. 25 At 20 wt % xylan and lignin, the tenacity decreased even by 26 and 32%, respectively.…”

“… 25 At 20 wt % xylan and lignin, the tenacity decreased even by 26 and 32%, respectively. 25 , 40 In the case of chitosan addition, the reduction of the tenacity of the cellulose composite fiber is generally lower: ∼1% with the addition of 10 wt % CHA and CHB and ∼13% with the addition of 25 wt % CHA and CHB, respectively. Furthermore, the Young’s modulus of the cellulose fibers was not affected despite the addition of chitosan, which is in good agreement with other studies involving cellulose and chitosan blends, 49 , 50 suggesting good compatibility of cellulose and chitosan in its composite form.…”

Cellulose-lignin composite fibres as precursors for carbon fibres. Part 1 – Manufacturing and properties of precursor fibres

“…Lignin can serve as a precursor for CF production and can be used as single raw material or blended with other polymers, such as PAN (B. Zhang et al, 2019), nanocellulose (Wang et al, 2019), cellulose (Bengtsson et al, 2018;Ma et al, 2015) as well as a mixture of cellulose and hemicellulose (Nypelö, Asaadi, Kneidinger, Sixta, & Konnerth, 2018).…”

Lignin-Based High-Performance Fibers by Textile Spinning Techniques

“…on the structure and mechanical properties of lignin/cellulose precursor fibers and carbon fibers have been investigated systematically [ 139 , 155 , 156 , 157 ], from which it is concluded that the cellulose constituent dominates precursor fiber structure and mechanical performance. Increasing lignin content decreases fiber strength due to the disturbance of oriented cellulose crystallites [ 141 , 158 , 159 ] and increases carbon yield [ 160 ] due to lignin’s carbon-rich structure. However, the draw ratio of solution-spun lignin/cellulose precursor fibers seemed to have no significant influence on the carbon fiber’s physical properties [ 155 ], although the detailed reasons from the perspective of fiber structure were not revealed.…”