Fabricating Sustainable All-Cellulose Composites

Abstract

Climate change, waste disposal challenges, and emissions generated by the manufacture of non-renewable materials are driving forces behind the production of more sustainable composite materials. All-cellulose composites (ACCs) originate from renewable biomass, such as trees and other plants, and are considered fully biodegradable. Dissolving cellulose is a common part of manufacturing ACCs, and currently there is a lot of research focused on effective, but also more environmentally friendly cellulose solvents. There are several beneficial properties of ACC materials that make them competitive: light weight, recyclability, low toxicity, good optical, mechanical, and gas barrier properties, and abundance of renewable plant-based raw material. The most prominent ACC applications are currently found in the food packing, medical, technical and vehicle industries. All-cellulose nanocomposites (ACNCs) expand the current research field and can offer a variety of more specific and functional applications. This review provides an overview of the manufacture of sustainable ACCs from lignocellulose, purified cellulose, and cellulosic textiles. There is an introduction of the cellulose dissolution practices of creating ACCs that are currently researched, the structure of cellulose during complete or partial dissolution is discussed, and a brief overview of factors which influence composite properties is presented.

Valorization of Pineapple Residues from the Colombian Agroindustry to Produce Cellulose Nanofibers

“…The urgency of today's environmental problems has led academia and the industry to focus on increasing research and production of natural biodegradable materials [1][2][3]. In this sense, the availability of biopolymers, due to their abundance and accessibility in nature and their low cost, have led to their use in different interesting applications [3,4]. A clear example of biopolymers with these advantages is cellulose [3,[5][6][7].…”

“…Aside from being one of the easiest organic compounds to obtain, cellulose is the most abundant natural, renewable, and biodegradable polysaccharide in the world [4,5], with an annual production yield greater than 10 × 10 11 tons [2,8].…”

All-Cellulose Composite Laminates Made from Wood-Based Textiles: Effects of Process Conditions and the Addition of TEMPO-Oxidized Nanocellulose

“…The quality and mechanical properties of the fibers vary depending on the plant species, maturity, and growth conditions as well as the fiber extraction and refining procedures used [ 20 , 21 ]. The inconsistent quality of the natural fibers and the presence of hemicelluloses, lignin, and other “impurities” (i.e., non-cellulosic materials) can negatively affect the preparation process and properties of ACC materials [ 11 , 22 ].…”

“…The most-used cellulose solvent system is the viscose process, which involves dissolution into carbon disulfide under strong alkaline conditions [ 31 , 32 ]. The downside of this system, as well as many other cellulose solvents, is the lack of comprehensive chemical recovery and recycling, and the toxic by-products that are produced, such as volatile carbon disulfide emissions [ 22 , 31 ]. Consequently, there is strong interest in finding effective, economical, and environmentally friendly chemical processing methods for dissolving cellulose [ 29 , 33 , 34 , 35 ].…”

Effect of Microwave Plasma Pre-Treatment on Cotton Cellulose Dissolution

“…PDI of cellulose dissolved in a solvent media is a strong indicator of how processable the cellulose solution will be [ 10 ] and significantly affect the properties of resulting cellulose-based materials [ 11 ]. Highly organized crystalline domains coexist in cellulose with less ordered non-crystalline amorphous domains [ 12 ]. In solution, the cellulose chains adopt semi-flexible conformations [ 13 , 14 , 15 ].…”