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- Ankerfors, Mikael, 1978-
(författare)
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Microfibrillated cellulose: Energy-efficient preparation techniques and applications in paper
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This work describes three alternative processes for producing microfibrillated cellulose (MFC; also referred to as cellulose nanofibrils, CNF) in which bleached pulp fibres are first pretreated and then homogenized using a high-pressure homogenizer. In one process, fibre cell wall delamination was facilitated by a combined enzymatic and mechanical pretreatment. In the two other processes, cell wall delamination was facilitated by pretreatments that introduced anionically charged groups into the fibre wall, by means of either a carboxymethylation reaction or irreversibly attaching carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) to the fibres. All three processes are industrially feasible and enable energy-efficient production of MFC. Using these processes, MFC can be produced with an energy consumption of 500–2300 kWh/tonne. These materials have been characterized in various ways and it has been demonstrated that the produced MFCs are approximately 5–30 nm wide and up to several microns long.The MFCs were also evaluated in a number of applications in paper. The carboxymethylated MFC was used to prepare strong free-standing barrier films and to coat wood-containing papers to improve the surface strength and reduce the linting propensity of the papers. MFC, produced with an enzymatic pretreatment, was also produced at pilot scale and was studied in a pilot-scale paper making trial as a strength agent added at the wet-end for highly filled papers.
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| 2. |
- Sjöstedt, Anna
(författare)
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Preparation and characterization of nanoporous cellulose fibres and their use in new material concepts
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall objective of the work in this thesis is to better utilize the non-collapsed structure of the delignified wood-fibre cell wall in the preparation of new types of materials.In order to utilize the fibres in new materials, it is crucial to have a well-defined starting material and to know how it reacts to certain treatments of the fibres. A new robust method for measuring the average pore size of water-swollen fibres-rich in cellulose is presented. This method is based on solid-state NMR, which measures the specific surface area [m2/g] of water-swollen samples, and the fibre saturation point (FSP) method, which measures the pore volume [water mass/solid mass] of a water swollen sample. These results can be combined since they are both recorded on water-swollen fibres in the presence of excess water and neither is based on any assumption of any particular pore geometry. Delignifed wood fibres (chemical pulp fibres) have an open fibrillar structure, with approximately 20 nm thick fibril aggregates arranged in a porous structure with a specific surface area of 150 m2/g. This open structure was preserved in the dry state by a liquid-exchange procedure followed by careful drying in argon gas. The dry structure had a specific surface area of 130 m2/g, which implies that the porous structure was preserved in the dry state.New fibre-basedmaterials were prepared by two different strategies.The first strategy was to utilize the open nanoporous fibre wall structure for the preparation of nanocomposites. The nanoporous structure was used as a scaffold, allowing monomers to impregnate the structure and to be in-situ polymerized inside the fibre wall pores. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(butylacrylate) (PBA) were synthesized inside the dry nanoporous fibre wall structure, and an epoxy resin was cured in never-dried fibres oxidized to different degrees by TEMPO. The composites prepared thus have a mixture of fibril aggregates and a polymer matrix inside the fibre wall. The structure and performance of the composite materials were evaluated both by high resolution microscopy and mechanically. Characterization of the composite showed that the polymer matrix was successfully formed inside the fibre wall pores. The structural changes caused by oxidation were preserved and utilized for the composite with the epoxy matrix. By tailoring the supramolecular structure of fibres in their water-swollen state, it was hence indeed possible to control the mechanical performance of the nanostructured fibre composites.The secondbstrategy used to prepare composites was to improve the thermoplastic properties of paper by adding polylactic acid (PLA) latex during the preparation of fibrebsheets. By the addition of PLA-latex, it was possible to form double curved sheets with a nominal strain at break of 21%.
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