Improving gelling properties of myofibrillar proteins incorporating with cellulose micro/nanofibres

The effects of cellulose microfibres (CMFs, Average size: 100 ± 5 μm) and cellulose nanofibres (CNFs, Average size: 60 ± 3 nm) on the properties of myofibrillar protein (MP) gels from duck breast meat were studied. The results demonstrated that CMFs and CNFs were mostly connected to MP by non-covalent bonds, the diffusion and cross-linking of MP molecules was promoted, and a denser and more complete gel network was formed. With the increases of CMFs and CNFs concentration (0–10%), the hardness was increased by 13.15% and 19.78% for CMFs10% and CNFs10% gels, respectively, and the elasticity was increased by 40% and 80%, respectively. At the same concentration (0–10%), the increase in gel hardness, viscoelasticity and immobilised water content was greater in the CNFs-MP group than in the CMFs-MP group. The CNFs-MP group had a tighter gel network, and CNFs had a better potential to improve the gelation performance of MP.     

Nanogrooved carbon microtubes for wet three‐dimensional printing of conductive composite structures

Recent advances in three‐dimensional (3D) printing have enabled the fabrication of interesting structures which are not achievable using traditional fabrication approaches. The 3D printing of carbon microtube composite inks allows fabrication of conductive structures for practical applications in soft robotics and tissue engineering. However, it is challenging to achieve 3D printed structures from solution‐based composite inks, which requires an additional process to solidify the ink. Here, we introduce a wet 3D printing technique which uses a coagulation bath to fabricate carbon microtube composite structures. We show that through a facile nanogrooving approach which introduces cavitation and channels on carbon microtubes, enhanced interfacial interactions with a chitosan polymer matrix are achieved. Consequently, the mechanical properties of the 3D printed composites improve when nanogrooved carbon microtubes are used, compared to untreated microtubes. We show that by carefully controlling the coagulation bath, extrusion pressure, printing distance and printed line distance, we can 3D print composite lattices which are composed of well‐defined and separated printed lines. The conductive composite 3D structures with highly customised design presented in this work provide a suitable platform for applications ranging from soft robotics to smart tissue engineering scaffolds. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

Nano fibrillated cellulose-based foam by Pickering emulsion: Preparation,characterizations, and application as dye adsorbent

An ecofriendly and biodegradable porous structure was prepared from drying aqueous foams based on nano fibrillated cellulose (NFC), extracted from softwood pulp by subcritical water/CO₂ treatment (SC-NFC). The primary aim of this work was to use the modified SC-NFC as stabilizer for a water-based Pickering emulsion which upon drying, yielded porous cellulosic materials, a good dye adsorbent. In order to exploit the carboxymethylated SC-NFC (CMSC-NFC, with a degree of substitution of 0.35 and a charge density of 649 μeqv/g) as a stabilizer for water-based Pickering emulsion in subsequent step, an optimized quantity of octyl amine (30 mg/g of SC-NFC) was added to make them partially hydrophobic. A series of dry foam structures were prepared by varying the concentrations of treated CMSC-NFCs and 4 wt% was found to be the optimum concentration to yield foam with high porosity (99%) and low density (0.038 g/cc) along with high compression strength (0.24 MPa), superior to the conventionally extracted NFC. The foams were applied to capture as high as 98% of methylene blue dyes, making them a potential green candidate for treating industrial effluent. In addition, the dye adsorption kinetics and isotherms were found to be well suited with second order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm models.     

Enhanced thermal shrinkage behavior of phenolic-derived carbon aerogel-reinforced by HNTs with superior compressive strength performance

A novel carbon/m-HNTs composite aerogel was synthesized by introducing the modified halloysite nanotubes (m-HNTs) into phenolic (PR) aerogels through chemical grafting, followed with carbonization treatment. In order to explore the best proportion of HNTs to phenolic, the micromorphology of PR/m-HNTs were investigated by SEM before carbonization, confirming 10 wt% of m-HNTs is most beneficial to the porous network of aerogels. The interaction between PR and HNTs was studied by FTIR spectra, and microstructure evolution of the target product-carbon/m-HNTs composite aerogel were illustrated by SEM and TEM techniques. SEM patterns indicated that the carbon/m-HNTs aerogels maintain a stable porous structure at 1000 °C (carbonization temperature), while a ~20 nm carbon layer was formed around m-HNTs generating an integral unit through TEM analysis. Specific surface area and pore size distribution of composite aerogels were analyzed based on mercury intrusion porosimetry and N₂ adsorption–desorption method, the obtained results stayed around 500 m²g^?1 and 1.00 cm³g^?1 (pore volume) without significant discrepancy, compared with pure aerogel, showing the uniformity of pore size. The weight loss rate (26.76%) decreased greatly compared with pure aerogel, at the same time, the best volumetric shrinkage rate was only 30.83%, contributed by the existence of HNTs supporting the neighbor structure to avoid over-shrinking. The highest compressive strength reached to 4.43 MPa, while the data of pure aerogel was only 1.52 MPa, demonstrating the excellent mechanical property of carbon/m-HNTs aerogels.     

Deacetylated Cellulose Acetate/Polyurethane Composite Nanofiber Membranes with Highly Efficient Oil/Water Separation and Excellent Mechanical Properties

Nowadays, oil pollution has become more serious, which causes great threats both to the ecological environment and human life. In this study, a novel type of multifunctional deacetylated cellulose acetate/polyurethane (d-M_CA:M_TPU) composite nanofiber membranes for oil/water separation are successfully fabricated by electrospinning, which show super-amphiphilicity in air, super-hydrophilicity in oil, and oleophobicity in water. All the d-M_CA:M_TPU composite nanofiber membranes with different mass ratios can be used as water-removing, oil-removing, and emulsion separation substance only by gravity driving force. The highest separation flux for water and oil reaches up to 37 000 and 74 000 L m⁻² h⁻¹, respectively, and all the separation efficiencies are more than 99%. They have outstanding comprehensive mechanics performance, which can be controlled by simply adjusting the mass ratios. They show excellent antifouling and self-cleaning ability, endowing powerful cyclic stability and reusability. Those results show that d-M_CA:M_TPU composite nanofiber membranes have great application prospects in oil/water separation.     

Cellulose nanoparticles synthesised from potato peel for the development of active packaging film for enhancement of shelf life of raw prawns (Penaeus monodon) during frozen storage

In this study, the cellulose nanoparticles (CNP) isolated from potato peel were used for reinforcement of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based active packaging film. The above film was used to pack the raw prawns (Penaeus monodon) at −20 °C, and the colour change, protein content, TVB-N, TMA and microbial analysis were done at regular interval for prawns stored in CNP-PVA active packaging film. A significant difference was observed in the quality of prawns stored in potato CNP-PVA film compared with prawns packed and stored in polyethylene film. The newly designed active packaging with CNP and fennel seed oil enhanced the shelf life of prawns up to two months for both HOSO (head on shell on) prawn and PD (peeled and deveined) prawn. Hence, the study recommends the potato peel CNP-PVA film with fennel seed oil as better choice to extend the shelf life of the prawns during storage compared with polyethylene packaging.     

Effect of cellulose acetate/cellulose triacetate ratio on reverse osmosis blend membrane performance

Surface functionalization and modification including the grafting process are effective approaches to improve and enhance the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane performance. This work is aimed to synthesize grafted/crosslinked cellulose acetate (CA)/cellulose triacetate (CTA) blend RO membranes using N-isopropylacrylamide (N-IPAAm) as a monomer and N,N-methylene bisacrylamide (MBAAm) as a crosslinker. The morphology of these membranes was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and their surface roughness was characterized by atomic force microscopy. The performance of these membranes was evaluated through measuring two major parameters of salt rejection and water flux using RO unit at variable operating pressures. It was noted that the surface average roughness obviously decreased from 148 nm for the pure CA/CTA blend membrane with 2.5% CTA to 110 nm and 87 nm for the grafted N-IPAAm and grafted/crosslinked N-IPAAM/MBAAm/CA/CTA-RO membranes, respectively. Moreover, the contact angle decreased from 51.98° to 47.6° and 43.8° after the grafting and crosslinking process. The salt rejection of the grafted CA/CTA-RO membrane by 0.1% N-IPAAm produced the highest value of 98.12% and the water flux was 3.29 L/m²h at 10 bar.     

Impact of non‐solvent on regeneration of cellulose dissolved in 1‐(carboxymethyl)pyridinium chloride ionic liquid

Cellulose dissolved in ionic liquid (1‐(carboxymethyl)pyridinium chloride)/water (60/40 w/w) mixture is regenerated in various non‐solvents, namely water, ethanol, methanol and acetone, to gain more insight into the contribution of non‐solvent medium to the morphology of regenerated cellulose. To this end, the initial and regenerated celluloses were characterized with respect to crystallinity, thermal stability, chemical structure and surface morphology using wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. According to the results, regardless of non‐solvent type, all regenerated samples have the same chemical structure and lower crystallinity in comparison to the initial cellulose, making them a promising candidate for efficient biofuel production based on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. The reduction in crystallinity of regenerated samples is explained based on the potential of the non‐solvent to break the hydrogen bonds between cellulose chains and ionic liquid molecules as well as the affinity of water and non‐solvent which can be evaluated based on Hansen solubility parameter. The latter also determines the phase‐separation mechanism during the regeneration process, which in turn affects surface morphology of the regenerated cellulose. The pivotal effect of regenerated cellulose crystallinity on its thermal stability is also demonstrated. Regenerated cellulose with lower crystallinity is more susceptible to molecular rearrangement during heating and hence exhibits enhanced thermal stability. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry