Morphological Changes of Polymer-Grafted Nanocellulose during a Drying Process

Nanocellulose is emerging as a sustainable building block in materials science. Surface modification via polymer grafting has proven to be effective in tuning diverse material properties of nanocellulose, including wettability of films and the reinforcement effect in polymer matrices. Despite its widespread use in various environments, the structure of a single polymer-grafted nanocellulose remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate the morphologies of polymer-grafted CNFs at water-mica and air-mica interfaces by using all-atom molecular dynamics simulation and atomic force microscopy. We show that the morphologies of the polymer-grafted CNFs undergo a marked change in response to the surrounding environment due to variations in the conformation of the surface polymer chains. Our results provide novel insights into the molecular structure of polymer-grafted CNFs and can facilitate the design and development of innovative biomass-based nanomaterials.