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Updated: Feb 11, 2026

Towards Biomimicking Wood: Fabricated Free-standing Films of Nanocellulose, Lignin, and a Synthetic Polycation
Published on: June 17, 2014
Effects of fibre dimension and charge density on nanocellulose gels
Llyza Mendoza1, Thilina Gunawardhana1, Warren Batchelor1
1Bioresource Processing Research Institute of Australia (BioPRIA), Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia.
Hypothesis:
Carboxylated cellulose nanofibres can produce gels at low concentrations. The effect of pulp source on the nanocellulose fibre dimension and gel rheology are studied. It is hypothesised that fibre length and surface charge influence aspects of the gel rheological properties.
Experiments:
TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl)- mediated oxidised cellulose nanofibres from never-dried hardwood and softwood pulp and containing different charge levels were produced and characterized. Steady-state and dynamic rheological studies were performed to ascertain the effects of pulp type on gel behavior and properties.
Findings:
Nanocellulose fibres extracted from softwood (SW-TOCN) and hardwood (HW-TOCN) pulp exhibit similar widths but different length dimensions as shown via AFM analysis. Rheological measurements show that the dynamic moduli (G' and G'') of nanocellulose gels are independent of pulp source and are mostly influenced by fibre concentration. Differences in the steady-state behavior (i.e. viscosity) at constant surface charge can be attributed to differences in fibre length. Increasing the surface charge density influences the critical strain and the viscosity at the percolation concentration (0.1 wt%) due to higher electrostatic interactions.
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