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Untangling the threads of cellulose mercerization
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Journal Article
Untangling the threads of cellulose mercerization
2022
Overview
Naturally occurring plant cellulose, our most abundant renewable resource, consists of fibers of long polymer chains that are tightly packed in parallel arrays in either of two crystal phases collectively referred to as cellulose I. During mercerization, a process that involves treatment with sodium hydroxide, cellulose goes through a conversion to another crystal form called cellulose II, within which every other chain has remarkably changed direction. We designed a neutron diffraction experiment with deuterium labelling in order to understand how this change of cellulose chain direction is possible. Here we show that during mercerization of bacterial cellulose, chains fold back on themselves in a zigzag pattern to form crystalline anti-parallel domains. This result provides a molecular level understanding of one of the most widely used industrial processes for improving cellulosic materials.
During mercerization, cellulose undergoes a conversion from form I to form II which involves change of the direction of every other cellulose chain but a clear understanding of how this change happens is lacking. Here, the authors use neutron diffraction on deuterium labelled cellulose to demonstrate that chains fold back on themselves in a zigzag pattern to form crystalline anti-parallel domains.
