Despite that intensive investigations have been done on the cellulose microfibril (CMF), there are still many uncertainties in its structure. What is even more elusive is how several individual cellulose protofibrils (PFs) bundle together to form a CMF product. Because of the lack of effective experimental approaches, we have used computer modeling to study this process. Our results indicate that the spontaneous formation of CMF is a step-wise process, initiated by the bundling of two PFs. This investigation also allows us to study the effect of bundling process on the structure of CMF product.

Bundling of cellulose protofibrils into microfibril

247th National Meeting (2014)

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