The interactions of cellulose with water are difficult to characterize experimentally, not least because this polysaccharide is completely insoluble under standard conditions. However, the details of cellulose hydration and how these depend on the structure of the individual polysaccharide chains and fibers made up from them can be profitably modeled using various types of computer simulations. The nature of cellulose hydrophobicity and its role in crystalline structures and in the interactions of cellulose chains with cellulase enzymes, as characterized from simulations, will be described.

Cellulose structure and hydrophobicity

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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