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- Aulin, Christian, 1980-
(author)
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Novel oil resistant cellulosic materials
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this study has been to prepare and characterise oil resistant cellulosic materials, ranging from model surfaces to papers and aerogels. The cellulosic materials were made oil resistant by chemical and topographic modifications, based on surface energy, surface roughness and barrier approaches. Detailed wetting studies of the prepared cellulosic materials were made using contact angle measurements and standardised penetration tests with different alkanes and oil mixtures. A significant part of the activities were devoted to the development of model cellulosic surfaces with different degrees of crystalline ordering for the wetting studies. Crystalline cellulose I, II and amorphous cellulose surfaces were prepared by spin-coating of cellulose nanocrystal or microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) dispersions, with Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) films or by a layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition technique. The formation of multilayers consisting of polyethyleneimine (PEI)/anionic MFC or cationic MFC/anionic MFC was further studied and optimized in terms of total layer thickness and adsorbed amount by combining Dual Polarization Interferometry (DPI) or Stagnation Point Adsorption Reflectrometry (SPAR) with a Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation (QCM-D). The smooth cellulosic surfaces prepared had different molecular and mesostructure properties and different surface energies as shown by X-ray diffraction, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging, ellipsometry measurements and contact angle measurements. The cellulose model surfaces were found to be ideal for detailed wetting studies, and after the surface has been coated or covalently modified with various amounts of fluorosurfactants, the fluorinated cellulose films were used to follow the spreading mechanisms of different oil mixtures. The viscosity and surface tension of the oil mixtures, as well as the dispersive surface energy of the cellulose surfaces, were found to be essential parameters governing the spreading kinetics. A strong correlation was found between the surface concentration of fluorine, the dispersive surface energy and the measured contact angle of the oil mixtures. Silicon surfaces possessing structural porous characteristics were fabricated by a plasma etching process. The structured silicon surfaces were coated with sulfate-stabilized cellulose I nanocrystals using the LbL technique. These artificial intrinsically oleophilic cellulose surfaces were made highly oleophobic when coated with a thin layer of fluorinated silanes. By comparison with flat cellulose surfaces, which are oleophilic, it is demonstrated that the surface energy and the surface texture are essential factors preventing oil from spreading on the surface and, thus, inducing the observed macroscopic oleophobic properties. The use of the MFC for surface coating on base papers demonstrated very promising characteristics as packaging materials. Environmental-Scanning Electron Microscopy (E-SEM) micrographs indicated that the MFC layer reduced the sheet porosity, i.e. the dense structure formed by the nanofibers resulted in superior oil barrier properties. Attempts were made to link the procedure for preparation of the MFC dispersions to the resulting microstructure of the coatings, and film porosity and the film moisture content to the resulting permeability properties. Finally, MFC aerogels were successfully prepared by freeze-drying. The surface texture of the porous aerogels was carefully controlled by adjusting the concentration of the MFC dispersion used for the freeze-drying. The different scales of roughness of the MFC aerogels were utilised, together with the very low surface energy created by fluorination of the aerogel, to induce highly oleophobic properties.
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| 2. |
- Stevanic Srndovic, Jasna, 1971-
(author)
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Ultrastructure of the Primary Cell Wall of Softwood Fibres Studied using Dynamic FT-IR Spectroscopy
- 2008
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The primary cell wall is a complex multipolymer system whose composite structure has been mostly determined from chemical and biochemical studies. Although the primary cell wall serves a central role, with regard to the connective properties of fibres, knowledge about the interactions among the polymers, when it comes to the mechanical properties, is very limited. The physical properties of the polymers, i.e. their elastic and viscous deformations, as well as the ultrastructure of the polymers, i.e. the interactions among the polymers in the outer fibre wall layers that lead to this behaviour, are still not fully understood. The aim of this study was to examine how the different wood polymers, viz. lignin, protein, pectin, xyloglucan and cellulose, interact in the outer fibre wall layers of the spruce wood tracheid. The initial objective was to separate an enriched primary cell wall material from a first stage TMP, by means of screening and centri-cleaning. From this material, consisting of the primary cell wall (P) and outer secondary cell wall (S1) materials, thin sheets were prepared and analysed using a number of different analytical methods. The major measuring technique used was dynamic Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy in combination with dynamic 2D FT-IR spectroscopy. This technique is based on the detection of small changes in molecular absorption that occur when a sinusoidally stretched sample undergoes low strain. The molecular groups affected by the stretching respond in a specific way, depending on their environment, while the unaffected molecular groups provide no response to the dynamic spectra, by producing no elastic or viscous signals. Moreover, the dynamic 2D FT-IR spectroscopy provides useful information about various intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, which influence the reorientability of functional groups in a polymer material. Measurements of the primary cell wall material, using dynamic FT-IR spectroscopy, indicated that strong interactions exist among lignin, protein and pectin, as well as among cellulose, xyloglucan and pectin in this particular layer. This was in contrast to the secondary cell wall, where interactions of cellulose with glucomannan and of xylan with lignin were dominant. It was also indicated that the most abundant crystalline cellulose in the primary cell wall of spruce wood fibres is the cellulose Iβ allomorph, which was also in contrast to the secondary cell wall, where the cellulose Iα allomorph is more dominant. The presence of strong interactions among the polymers in the primary cell wall and, especially, the relatively high content of pectin and protein, showed that there is a very good possibility of selectively attacking these polymers in the primary cell wall. The first selective reaction chosen was a low degree of sulphonation, applied by an impregnation pretreatment of chips with a very low charge of sodium sulfite (Na2SO3). This selective reaction caused some structural modification of the lignin, a weakening of the interactions between lignin;pectin, lignin;protein and pectin;protein, as well as an increased softening of the sulphonated primary cell wall material, when compared to the unsulphonated primary cell wall material. All this resulted in an increased swelling ability of the material.
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