Porous Cellulose Materials from Nano Fibrillated Cellulose

Abstract: In the first part of this work a novel type of low-density, sponge-like material for the separation of mixtures of oil and water has been prepared by vapour deposition of hydrophobic silanes on ultra-porous nanocellulose aerogels. To achieve this, a highly porous (> 99 %) nanocellulose aerogel with high structural flexibility and robustness is first formed by freeze-drying an aqueous dispersion of the nanocellulose. The density, pore size distribution and wetting properties of the aerogel can be tuned by selecting the concentration of the nanocellulose dispersion before freeze-drying. The hydrophobic light-weight aerogels are almost instantly filled with the oil phase when they selectively absorb oil from water, with a capacity to absorb up to 45 times their own weight. The oil can also be drained from the aerogel and the aerogel can then be subjected to a second absorption cycle.In the second part of the work a novel, lightweight and strong porous cellulose material has been prepared by drying aqueous foams stabilized with surface-modified NanoFibrillated Cellulose (NFC). Confocal microscopy and high-speed video imaging show that the long-term stability of the wet foams can be attributed to the octylamine-coated, rod-shaped NFC nanoparticles residing at the air-liquid interface which prevent the air bubbles from collapsing or coalescing. Careful removal of the water yields a porous cellulose-based material with a porosity of 98 % and a density of 30 mg cm-3. These porous cellulose materials have a higher Young’s modulus than other cellulose materials made by freeze drying and a compressive energy absorption of 56 kJ m-3 at 80 % strain. Measurements with an autoporosimeter reveal that most pores are in the range of 300 to 500 μm.