Preparation and Characterization of Porous Cellulose Acetate Nanofiber Hydrogels

Abstract

The currently reported methods for preparing cellulose acetate hydrogels use chemical reagents as cross-linking agents, and the prepared ones are non-porous structured cellulose acetate hydrogels. Nonporous cellulose acetate hydrogels limit the range of applications, such as limiting cell attachment and nutrient delivery in tissue engineering. This research creatively proposed a facile method to prepare cellulose acetate hydrogels with porous structures. Water was added to the cellulose acetate–acetone solution as an anti-solvent to induce the phase separation of the cellulose acetate–acetone solution to obtain a physical gel with a network structure, where the cellulose acetate molecules undergo re-arrangement during the replacement of acetone by water to obtain hydrogels. The SEM and BET test results showed that the hydrogels are relatively porous. The maximum pore size of the cellulose acetate hydrogel is 380 nm, and the specific surface area reaches 62 m2/g. The porosity of the hydrogel is significantly higher than that of the cellulose acetate hydrogel reported in the previous literature. The XRD results show that the nanofibrous morphology of cellulose acetate hydrogels is caused by the deacetylation reaction of cellulose acetate.

Innovative ionic liquid pretreatment followed by wet disk milling treatment provides enhanced properties of sugar palm nano-fibrillated cellulose

“…After bleaching treatment, a noticeable increase in the intensity of peaks at 1429, 1363, 1312, 1159, 1104, 1052, and 1030 cm −1 was evident. These peaks associated with various vibrations, including C– O –C stretching, C–H 2 deformation, C–H 2 rocking, C– O –C glycoside ether, C–O pyranose ring stretching, and C–O stretching of a primary alcohol, which are characteristic of cellulose peaks in carbohydrates [ 80 ]. The recognizable band located around 895 cm −1 can be attributed to stretching vibrations of C– O –C, indicating the availability of -glycosidic bonds in cellulose [ 81 , 82 ].…”

Nano-Food Farming: Toward Sustainable Applications of Proteins, Mushrooms, Nano-Nutrients, and Nanofibers

“…Several studies have investigated the use of nanofibers for farming and in the food sector (Table 4). The food sector investigations have included topics such as creating porous cellulose-acetate nanofiber hydrogels [258], starch-based nanofibers to monitor food freshness [259], poly-lactic acid nanofibers in food packaging [260], green nanofibers for the delivery of active foods [261], and natural cellulose nanofibers for fresh food packaging [257]. These nanofibers are good candidates for food packaging due to their biodegradability, ability to serve as exceptional barriers, and mechanical attributes [257].…”

A Facile One-Step Synthesis of Polystyrene/Cellulose (PS@MFC) Biocomposites for the Preparation of Hybrid Water-Absorbing Sponge Materials

“…The obtained s-PS@MFC composites might be a more "green" alternative to the actual water sorption materials; hence, comprehensive investigations of their structure and characteristics such as porosity and water uptake are of great importance [49][50][51][52]. According to Figure 5, the volumes and, hence, the densities of the s-PS@MFC samples obtained under the same loading were different.…”