Hemicelluloses are one of the most abundant biopolymers on earth and there is a wide array of potential applications. Moreover, introducing functional groups onto hemicelluloses while keeping their morphological structure is increasing the amount of possible uses. In the present work we focus on obtaining gelling properties of hemicelluloses, an important property for the development of materials used for cosmetics, drug delivery, food additives and as bioinks for 3D bioprinting. Thus, modified hemicelluloses can be used as crosslinkers for nanocellulose dispersions towards 3D bioprinting. We have functionalized hemicelluloses present in spruce; arabinoglucuronoxylan (AGX) and galactoglucomannan (GGM), by reaction of carboxylic groups with the phenolic groups present in tyramine. AGX could be modified in its native state since it has carboxylic groups in the form of glucuronic acid on the xylan backbone while GGM first was oxidized to its polyuronic acid derivatives by TEMPO-mediated oxidation. The functionalized hemicelluloses have been compared by evaluating molar mass, composition and reaction yield. Rheology studies of these tyramine conjugates were conducted both in solution as well as in gel-state during and after enzymatic crosslinking to determine the final gelation properties.

Modified hemicelluloses as crosslinker towards tuning the gelling properties of nanocellulose dispersions

251st National Meeting (2016)

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