Cellulose as the most abundant renewable raw material exhibits outstanding properties, but also forms a tremendous challenge with regard to economic and environmentally friendly processing.  The present paper is centered on process related structural changes of cellulose on the one hand and on novel materials and processing routes on the other.  The supermolecular structure and phase transitions of cellulose by alkalization were investigated by WAXS and 13C-CP/MAS-NMR.  Based on the melt-like behavior of a cellulose-NMMO-dope, for the first time blown films and meltblown nonwovens could be produced on a pilot plant scale according to the lyocell technology.  Higher performance cellulose fibers were obtained using liquid crystalline cellulose carbamate systems.  Bicomponent cellulose-lignin fibers are considered as potential precursors for carbon fibers.  Finally, the use of rayon tire yarn as an existing technical cellulose fiber opens up novel prospects for fully bio-based composites.

Novel cellulose materials and processing routes

245th National Meeting (2013)

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