Untangling the threads of cellulose mercerization
(2022) In Nature Communications 13(1).- Abstract
Naturally occurring plant cellulose, our most abundant renewable resource, consists of fibers of long polymer chains that are tightly packed in parallel arrays in either of two crystal phases collectively referred to as cellulose I. During mercerization, a process that involves treatment with sodium hydroxide, cellulose goes through a conversion to another crystal form called cellulose II, within which every other chain has remarkably changed direction. We designed a neutron diffraction experiment with deuterium labelling in order to understand how this change of cellulose chain direction is possible. Here we show that during mercerization of bacterial cellulose, chains fold back on themselves in a zigzag pattern to form crystalline... (More)
Naturally occurring plant cellulose, our most abundant renewable resource, consists of fibers of long polymer chains that are tightly packed in parallel arrays in either of two crystal phases collectively referred to as cellulose I. During mercerization, a process that involves treatment with sodium hydroxide, cellulose goes through a conversion to another crystal form called cellulose II, within which every other chain has remarkably changed direction. We designed a neutron diffraction experiment with deuterium labelling in order to understand how this change of cellulose chain direction is possible. Here we show that during mercerization of bacterial cellulose, chains fold back on themselves in a zigzag pattern to form crystalline anti-parallel domains. This result provides a molecular level understanding of one of the most widely used industrial processes for improving cellulosic materials.
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- author
- Sawada, Daisuke ; Nishiyama, Yoshiharu ; Shah, Riddhi ; Forsyth, V. Trevor LU ; Mossou, Estelle ; O’Neill, Hugh Michael ; Wada, Masahisa and Langan, Paul
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Nature Communications
- volume
- 13
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 6189
- publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:36261428
- scopus:85140264819
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41467-022-33812-w
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 589f93ef-069e-4d91-bc23-e378d3331601
- date added to LUP
- 2022-12-06 15:31:30
- date last changed
- 2024-04-18 18:55:13
@article{589f93ef-069e-4d91-bc23-e378d3331601,
abstract = {{<p>Naturally occurring plant cellulose, our most abundant renewable resource, consists of fibers of long polymer chains that are tightly packed in parallel arrays in either of two crystal phases collectively referred to as cellulose I. During mercerization, a process that involves treatment with sodium hydroxide, cellulose goes through a conversion to another crystal form called cellulose II, within which every other chain has remarkably changed direction. We designed a neutron diffraction experiment with deuterium labelling in order to understand how this change of cellulose chain direction is possible. Here we show that during mercerization of bacterial cellulose, chains fold back on themselves in a zigzag pattern to form crystalline anti-parallel domains. This result provides a molecular level understanding of one of the most widely used industrial processes for improving cellulosic materials.</p>}},
author = {{Sawada, Daisuke and Nishiyama, Yoshiharu and Shah, Riddhi and Forsyth, V. Trevor and Mossou, Estelle and O’Neill, Hugh Michael and Wada, Masahisa and Langan, Paul}},
issn = {{2041-1723}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
series = {{Nature Communications}},
title = {{Untangling the threads of cellulose mercerization}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33812-w}},
doi = {{10.1038/s41467-022-33812-w}},
volume = {{13}},
year = {{2022}},
}