Nanofibrillated Cellulose from Appalachian Hardwoods Logging Residues as Template for Antimicrobial Copper

Abstract

TEMPO nanofibrillated cellulose (TNFC) from two underutilized Appalachian hardwoods, Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) and yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), was prepared to determine its feasibility to be used as template for antimicrobial metallic copper particles. In addition, a comparison of the TNFC from the two species in terms of their morphological, chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties was also performed. The woody biomass was provided in the form of logging residue from Preston County, West Virginia. A traditional kraft process was used to produce the pulp followed by a five-stage bleaching. Bleached pulps were then subjected to a TEMPO oxidation process using the TEMPO/NaBr/NaClO system to facilitate the final mechanical fibrillation process and surface incorporation of metallic copper. The final TNFC diameters for red oak and yellow poplar presented similar dimensions, 3.8 ± 0.74 nm and 3.6 ± 0.85 nm, respectively. The TNFC films fabricated from both species exhibited no statistical differences in both Young's modulus and the final strength properties. Likely, after the TEMPO oxidation process both species exhibited similar carboxyl group content, of approximately 0.8 mmol/g, and both species demonstrated excellent capability to incorporate antimicrobial copper on their surfaces.

Nanocellulose from the Appalachian Hardwood Forest and Its Potential Applications

“…The average diameter for TNFC from R.O resulted of 3.2 ± 0.66 nm and of 3.3 ± 0.74 nm for TNFC from Y.P. that is less than the previous work (Hassanzadeh et al 2017)which can be because of a different mechanical disintegration procedure which we applied (three passes through microfluidizer compared to two passes in previous attempt).…”

“…Compared to preious work, the Tonset for TNFC samples of two species is lower this time, that might be because of higher amount of carboxyl group in the present work (Hassanzadeh et al 2017)( 1.37 and 1.45 mmol/g Compared to 0.8 in previous paper).…”

“…The large amount of char residue form TEMPO oxidized NFCs may be due to their nano-sized fibres and higher number of carboxylate groups on their surface (Soni and Mahmoud 2015). In our first attempt (Hassanzadeh et al 2017)the CY% of the two samples were lower than the current same samples probably due to having higher degree of carboxyl content. respectively.…”

Undervalued hardwoods for engineered materials and components: second edition

“…Song et al (2014) later performed similar experiments using northern maple hardwood. Poplar has also been used to produce both CNCs (Yang et al 2014) and CNFs (Chen et al 2013;Hassanzadeh et al, 2017). Birch is another hardwood that was used to produce cellulose nanomaterials (Vartiainen et al 2011).…”

Obtaining Hydrophobic Aerogels of Unbleached Cellulose Nanofibers of the Species Eucalyptus sp. and Pinus elliottii

“…Cellulose is characterized as a linear polysaccharide consisting of D-glucose units linked together alternately, with its repeating unit called cellobiose, which is also present in plants, animals, and some bacteria. Wood is the main source of its production [7][8][9][10]. In Brazil, the main sources of cellulose are planted forests of the Pinus sp.…”