%0 Journal Article
%A Sánchez Salvador, José Luis
%A Monte Lara, M. Concepción
%A Negro Álvarez, Carlos Manuel
%A Batchelor, Warren
%A Garnier, Gil
%A Blanco Suárez, Ángeles
%T Simplification of gel point characterization of cellulose nano and microfiber suspensions
%D 2021
%@ 0969-0239
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/7215
%X Nanocellulose is an emerging material that needs to be well characterized to control its performance during industrial applications. Gel point (Øg) is a convenient parameter commonly used to estimate the aspect ratio (AR) of cellulose nano/microfibers (CNFs/CMFs), providing critical information on the nanofiber network. However, its estimation requires many sedimentation experiments, tedious and time consuming. In this study, a simpler and faster technique is presented to estimate Øg, based on one or two sedimentation experiments, reducing the experiments by a factor of at least 2.5. Here, this new methodology is successfully validated by using the Øg of different CNF/CMF hydrogels calculated with the traditional methodology, showing an error lower than 7%. The error in the estimation of the AR is lower than 3% in all cases. Furthermore, the two mathematical models currently used to estimate Øg, the smoothing spline and the quadratic fit, are compared and the mathematical assumptions improved.
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