Tuning the Porosity, Water Interaction, and Redispersion of Nanocellulose Hydrogels by Osmotic Dehydration.
ACS APPLIED POLYMER MATERIALS 2022;
4:24-28. [PMID:
35072077 PMCID:
PMC8765005 DOI:
10.1021/acsapm.1c01430]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Osmotic dehydration (OD) was introduced as a method to reproducibly tune the water content and porosity of cellulose nanofiber (CNF) hydrogels. The hierarchical porosity was followed by electron microscopy (pores with a >100 μm diameter) and thermoporosimetry (mesopores), together with mechanical testing, in hydrogels with solid contents ranging from 0.7 to 12 wt %. Furthermore, a reciprocal correlation between proton conductivity and the ratio of water bound to the nanocellulose network was established, suggesting the potential of these systems toward tunable energy materials.
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