Ion-Mediated Gelation of Aqueous Suspensions of Cellulose Nanocrystals
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- 作者：Mokit Chau ; Shivanthi E. Sriskandha ; Dmitry Pichugin ; H茅lo茂se Th茅rien-Aubin ; Dmitro Nykypanchuk ; Gr茅gory Chauve ; Myriam M茅thot ; Jean Bouchard ; Oleg Gang ; Eugenia Kumacheva
- 刊名：Biomacromolecules
- 出版年：2015
- 出版时间：August 10, 2015
- 年：2015
- 卷：16
- 期：8
- 页码：2455-2462
- 全文大小：478K
- ISSN：1526-4602
文摘
Nanofibrillar hydrogels are an important class of biomaterials with applications as catalytic scaffolds, artificial extracellular matrixes, coatings, and drug delivery materials. In the present work, we report the results of a comprehensive study of nanofibrillar hydrogels formed by cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) in the presence of cations with various charge numbers and ionic radii. We examined sol鈥揼el transitions in aqueous CNC suspensions and the rheological and structural properties of the CNC hydrogels. At a particular CNC concentration, with increasing charge and cation size, the dynamic shear moduli and mesh size in the hydrogel increased. These effects were ascribed to a stronger propensity of CNCs for side-by-side association. The resulting hydrogels had an isotropic nanofibrillar structure. A combination of complementary techniques offered insight into structure鈥損roperty relationships of CNC hydrogels, which are important for their potential applications.