To replace fossil-based plastics, there have been huge efforts in transforming biomass into degradable bioplastics. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on earth and is thus a promising starting material in this transformation. The success of fossil-based polymer products has been associated with melt processability, which allows to create products with complex shapes at a low cost. Cellulose has intrinsic limitations that impede melt processing, which must be overcome to expand conventional processing techniques to renewable cellulosic materials.<br/><br/>A promising solution is to chemically modify cellulose to dialcohol cellulose, since this material has been shown to exhibit thermoplastic properties in terms of softening, increased ductility, and melt processability. By doing so, the material can be processed using injection molding, which is one of the most widely used processing techniques utilizing melt processability. However, the chemical modifications of cellulose impact the morphology formed during processing. The resulting morphology defines the mechanical properties of the injection molded parts and consequently, understanding the correlation between degree of modification, and resulting morphology is an important challenge.<br/><br/>In this contribution, we present how advanced scanning wide-angle X-ray scattering can be used to unfold the nature of the complex structures in a novel composite based on dialcohol cellulose and ethylene acrylic acid copolymer resin (EAA). We show how varying processing conditions as well as degree of modification and material composition induce structural changes throughout the material. Understanding what is influencing the hierarchical structures is key to optimize material usage, further increase the quality of products, and continuing to develop sustainable materials that can replace fossil-based counterparts.

Characterization of injection-moulded wood-based thermoplastics using scanning WAXS

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