Design of experiments to investigate multi-additive cellulose nanocrystal films

Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) suspensions can self-assemble into chiral nematic films upon the slow evaporation of water. These films are brittle, as indicated by their fracturing instead of plastically deforming once they are fully elastically deformed. This aspect can be mediated to some extent by plasticizing additives, such as glucose and glycerol, however, few reports consider more than one additive at a time or address the influence of additive content on the homogeneity of the self-assembled structure. In this work, design of experiments (DoE) was used to empirically model complex film compositions, attempting to relate additive concentrations in dilute suspension to film properties, and to understand whether outcome specific predictions are possible using this approach. We demonstrate that DoE can be used to predict film properties in multi-additive systems, without consideration given to the different phenomena that occur along the drying process or to the nature of the additives. Additionally, a homogeneity metric is introduced in relation to chiral nematic organization in CNC films, with most of the additive-containing compositions in this work found to reduce the homogeneity of the self-assembly relative to pure CNC films.

Description

Funding Information: Elizabeth Hörlin is acknowledged for guidance and help with practical implementation of design of experiments, Niklas Nordgren for AFM imaging and analysis, Karin Hallstensson for SEM imaging, and Erik Mellberg for useful discussions. TA acknowledges the Chair in Sustainable Packaging at EPFL, co-funded by BASF, Logitech, Nestlé, and SIG. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Nilsson, Engström, Kaschuk, Vapaavuori, Larsson and Abitbol.

Keywords

additives, cellulose nanocrystals, design of experiments, films, machine learning, self-assembly

DOI

10.3389/fmolb.2022.988600

Citation

Nilsson , P , Engström , Å , Kaschuk , J J , Vapaavuori , J , Larsson , A & Abitbol , T 2022 , ' Design of experiments to investigate multi-additive cellulose nanocrystal films ' , Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences , vol. 9 , 988600 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2022.988600

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202212076773

Collections

[article-cris] Kemian tekniikan korkeakoulu / CHEM

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