Morphological Observation of Cellulose Nanofiber Obtained by Mechanical Defibration

Introduction

Cellulose is a polysaccharide consisting mainly of plant cell walls. Nanocellulose is produced by defibrating cellulose to the nanometer size. Nanocellulose with a width of 4 to 100 nm, length of approximately several μm, and high aspect ratio (100 or more) is called cellulose nanofiber (CNF), and is a focus of attention as an advanced new biomass material. In addition to light weight and high strength, CNF also offers outstanding functions such as a high gas barrier property, adsorption, and transparency. Moreover, because CNF is a plant fiber-derived material, the environmental impacts associated with production and disposal are small. Application to automotive, electronic, packaging and other materials is expected in the future. Because CNF is produced by the grinder method, in which cellulose is mechanically defibrated, optimization of the defibration conditions is required for efficient production of larger quantities of CNF. Therefore, morphological observation was performed focusing on the fibers in the defibration process, which had not been considered important in the past. This article introduces an example of morphological observation of fibers during the mechanical defibration process using a scanning probe microscope (SPM) and laser scanning microscope (LSM).

September 20, 2018 GMT