RT Journal Article
T1 A reproducible method to characterize the bulk morphology of cellulose nanocrystals and nanofibers by transmission electron microscopy
A1 Campano, Cristina
A1 Balea Martín, Ana
A1 Blanco Suárez, María Ángeles
A1 Negro Álvarez, Carlos Manuel
AB With the increased use of nanocelluloses as additives in many industrial applications, better characterization methods are needed to ensure their effectiveness. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is an appropriate image acquisition system to enable their morphological characterization. The use of TEM has typically been focused on determining the diameter and length of individual cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) or nanofibers (CNFs), so different dispersion practices, such as sonication or the use of dispersants, are commonly applied to separate the particles. However, this study aims to improve the characterization of the bulk morphology of CNCs and CNFs by TEM, taking steps towards the determination of the aggregation/dispersion degree as well as the fibrillation degree of CNFs. TEM has been investigated with two types of grids (holey and Formvar/carbon), three different fixing methods (Poly-l-Lysine, glow discharge and UV radiation) and the use of negative staining. Fractal dimension and lacunarity were used to quantify the reproducibility of the improved method. With the use of Poly-l-Lysine, the attachment of CNCs and CNFs particles on the TEM grids was ensured, due to the electrostatic interactions between negatively charged nanocelluloses and positively charged and hydrophilic Poly-l-Lysine surfaces. The low value of lacunarity, close to 0.3, shows a very high reproducibility of the methodology proposed. With this new approach, the state that the nanocelluloses have in suspension can be directly characterized by TEM.
PB Springer
SN 0969-0239
SN 1572-882X
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/109604
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/109604
LA eng
NO Campano, C., Balea, A., Blanco, Á., & Negro, C. (2020). A reproducible method to characterize the bulk morphology of cellulose nanocrystals and nanofibers by transmission electron microscopy. Cellulose, 27, 4871-4887.
NO Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
NO Community of Madrid
DS Docta Complutense
RD 22 abr 2025