Best Practice for Reporting Wet Mechanical Properties of Nanocellulose-Based Materials

Andreas Walther, Francisco Lossada, Tobias Benselfelt, Konstantin Kriechbaum, Lars Berglund, Olli Ikkala, Tsuguyuki Saito, Lars Wågberg, Lennart Bergström

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

41 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nanocellulose-based materials and nanocomposites show extraordinary mechanical properties with high stiffness, strength, and toughness. Although the last decade has witnessed great progress in understanding the mechanical properties of these materials, a crucial challenge is to identify pathways to introduce high wet strength, which is a critical parameter for commercial applications. Because of the waterborne fabrication methods, nanocellulose-based materials are prone to swelling by both adsorption of moist air or liquid water. Unfortunately, there is currently no best practice on how to take the swelling into account when reporting mechanical properties at different relative humidity or when measuring the mechanical properties of fully hydrated materials. This limits and in parts fully prevents comparisons between different studies. We review current approaches and propose a best practice for measuring and reporting mechanical properties of wet nanocellulose-based materials, highlighting the importance of swelling and the correlation between mechanical properties and volume expansion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2536-2540
Number of pages5
JournalBiomacromolecules
Volume21
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Jun 2020
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Best Practice for Reporting Wet Mechanical Properties of Nanocellulose-Based Materials'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this