Highly Hydrophobic Thermally Stable Liquid Crystalline Cellulosic Nanomaterials

Eldho Abraham, Yuval Nevo, Rikard Slattegard, Noam Attias, Sigal Sharon, Shaul Lapidot, Oded Shoseyov*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Highly hydrophobic cellulosic nanomaterials were prepared via iodine-catalyzed butyrate esterification of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC). The structure and properties of butyrated cellulose nanocrystals (Bu-CNC) were investigated via advanced spectroscopic, morphological, optical, thermal, contact angle, and coating analyses. Bu-CNC retained cellulose crystallinity, was hydrophobic with a static contact angle of 81.54° and displayed 18.5% enhancement in its thermal stability. Moreover, Bu-CNC possessed a solid multilamellar cellulose II structure and showed liquid crystalline behavior over a wide range of temperatures. Bu-CNC formed transparent flexible films upon drying and was easily dispersible in ethanol and acetone. As a thermally stable hydrophobic liquid crystalline biobased material, Bu-CNC presents a new class of nanomaterial, which potentially suits various industrial and medical applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1338-1346
Number of pages9
JournalACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
Volume4
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 7 Mar 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Chemical Society.

Keywords

  • Birefringence
  • Butyration
  • CNC
  • Cellulose liquid crystals
  • Hydrophobicity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Highly Hydrophobic Thermally Stable Liquid Crystalline Cellulosic Nanomaterials'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this