Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils
Highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils can solidify liquid water, creating self-supporting structures by incorporating a tiny number of fibrils. These fibrillar hydrogels can contain as much as 99.99 wt% water. The structure and mechanical properties of fibrillar networks have so far not been comp...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/180035 |
| _version_ | 1826113200276373504 |
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| author | Östmans, Rebecca Benselfelt, Tobias Erlandsson, Johan Rostami, Jowan Hall, Stephen Lindström, Stefan B. Wågberg, Lars |
| author2 | School of Materials Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Materials Science and Engineering Östmans, Rebecca Benselfelt, Tobias Erlandsson, Johan Rostami, Jowan Hall, Stephen Lindström, Stefan B. Wågberg, Lars |
| author_sort | Östmans, Rebecca |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils can solidify liquid water, creating self-supporting structures by incorporating a tiny number of fibrils. These fibrillar hydrogels can contain as much as 99.99 wt% water. The structure and mechanical properties of fibrillar networks have so far not been completely understood, nor how they solidify the bulk water at such low particle concentrations. In this work, the mechanical properties of cellulose fibrillar hydrogels in the dilute regime from a wt% perspective have been studied, and an elastoplastic model describing the network structure and its mechanics is presented. A significant insight from this work is that the ability of the fibrils to solidify water is very dependent on particle stiffness and the number of contact points it can form in the network structure. The comparison between the experimental results and the theoretical model shows that the fibrillar networks in the dilute regime form via a non-stochastic process since the fibrils have the time and freedom to find contact points during network formation by translational and rotational diffusion. The formed, dilute fibrillar network deforms by sliding fibril contacts upon straining the network beyond its elastic limit. Our results also show that before macroscopic failure, the fibril contacts are restored once the load is released. The exceptional properties of this solidified water are exploited to host fluidic channels, allowing directed fluid transportation in water. Finally, the microfluidic channels formed in the hydrogels are tailored by the layer-by-layer technique to be interactive against external stimuli, a characteristic envisioned to be useful in biomedical applications. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:19:19Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/180035 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:19:19Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1800352024-09-13T15:45:38Z Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils Östmans, Rebecca Benselfelt, Tobias Erlandsson, Johan Rostami, Jowan Hall, Stephen Lindström, Stefan B. Wågberg, Lars School of Materials Science and Engineering Engineering Colloidal gel Cellulose nanofibrils Highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils can solidify liquid water, creating self-supporting structures by incorporating a tiny number of fibrils. These fibrillar hydrogels can contain as much as 99.99 wt% water. The structure and mechanical properties of fibrillar networks have so far not been completely understood, nor how they solidify the bulk water at such low particle concentrations. In this work, the mechanical properties of cellulose fibrillar hydrogels in the dilute regime from a wt% perspective have been studied, and an elastoplastic model describing the network structure and its mechanics is presented. A significant insight from this work is that the ability of the fibrils to solidify water is very dependent on particle stiffness and the number of contact points it can form in the network structure. The comparison between the experimental results and the theoretical model shows that the fibrillar networks in the dilute regime form via a non-stochastic process since the fibrils have the time and freedom to find contact points during network formation by translational and rotational diffusion. The formed, dilute fibrillar network deforms by sliding fibril contacts upon straining the network beyond its elastic limit. Our results also show that before macroscopic failure, the fibril contacts are restored once the load is released. The exceptional properties of this solidified water are exploited to host fluidic channels, allowing directed fluid transportation in water. Finally, the microfluidic channels formed in the hydrogels are tailored by the layer-by-layer technique to be interactive against external stimuli, a characteristic envisioned to be useful in biomedical applications. Published version The authors R. Ostmans and L. Wågberg acknowledge funding from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) through the Wallenberg Wood Science Center. S.B. Lindstrom works within the research profile Neopulp financed by the Knowledge Foundation. SBL also thanks SCA for financial support. T. Benselfelt acknowledges the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) for financial support. J. Erlandsson acknowledges the MODULIT-project (grant number 37716-1). BYK Additives is thanked for kindly donating Closite MMT clay. Aditya Birla, Domsjo fabriker AB and Nordic paper Saffle AB for their generous donations of fibers. Finally, Treesearch is thanked for funding X-ray tomography measurements performed at the 4D Imaging Lab at Lund University. 2024-09-10T06:38:23Z 2024-09-10T06:38:23Z 2024 Journal Article Östmans, R., Benselfelt, T., Erlandsson, J., Rostami, J., Hall, S., Lindström, S. B. & Wågberg, L. (2024). Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils. Materials Today Nano, 26, 100476-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mtnano.2024.100476 2588-8420 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/180035 10.1016/j.mtnano.2024.100476 2-s2.0-85189942008 26 100476 en Materials Today Nano © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Engineering Colloidal gel Cellulose nanofibrils Östmans, Rebecca Benselfelt, Tobias Erlandsson, Johan Rostami, Jowan Hall, Stephen Lindström, Stefan B. Wågberg, Lars Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils |
| title | Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils |
| title_full | Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils |
| title_fullStr | Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils |
| title_full_unstemmed | Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils |
| title_short | Solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils |
| title_sort | solidified water at room temperature hosting tailored fluidic channels by using highly anisotropic cellulose nanofibrils |
| topic | Engineering Colloidal gel Cellulose nanofibrils |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/180035 |
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