Cellulose in nature shows a rich phase behavior with complex superstructures, chirality and chiral inversions over different length scales. This has inspired work to engineer cellulose materials with tailored mechanical and optical properties using cellulose nanoparticle (nanocellulose) constituents. Even though many of these materials show great potential for a wide range of applications, the fine structural details of their nanocellulose components have so far not been fully elucidated. By gaining detailed knowledge of the nanocellulose chirality and fine structure, new strategies for advanced bottom-up nanotechnologies and self-assembly of new helical nanomaterials may become available.<br/><br/>In this contribution our latest results, using high-resolution microscopy and statistical polymer physics, aimed at understanding structural properties of single nanocellulose fibrils will be discussed. Specifically, the origin and structural role of nanocellulose kinks will be examined and compared to the existing state of the art.

Structure-property relationships of nanocellulose fibrils

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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