Cellulose-based micro-fibrous materials imaged with a home-built smartphone microscope

Micro-fibrous materials are one of the highly explored materials and form a major component of composite materials. In resource-limited settings, an affordable and easy to implement method that can characterize such material would be important. In this study, we report on a smartphone microscopic system capable of imaging a sample in transmission mode. As a proof of concept, we implemented the method to image handmade paper samples-cellulosic micro-fibrous material of different thickness. With 1 mm diameter ball lens, individual cellulose fibers, fiber web, and micro-porous regions were resolved in the samples. Imaging performance of the microscopic system was also compared with a commercial bright field microscope. For thin samples, we found the image quality comparable to commercial system. Also, the diameter of cellulose fiber measured from both methods was found to be similar. We also used the system to image surfaces of a three ply surgical facemask. Finally, we explored the application of the system in the study of chemical induced fiber damage. This study suggested that the smartphone microscope system can be an affordable alternative in imaging thin micro-fibrous material in resource limited setting.