Atomistic Modeling of Amorphous Region of Cellulose Nanofibrils

摘要

Nanofibrillar cellulose (NFC) is a potential raw material for various products. Due to the small size of the fibrils it is possible to construct fibrillar networks having extremely high strength [1], to make paper with high porosity, or even transparent films [2]. As for its structure, NFC consists mainly of pure cellulose whose crystal structure is known, yet even more than 50 % of the material may actually be in noncrystalline form whose structure cannot be characterized by the current experimental techniques. Yet, the amorphous part has a major effect on chemical and physical properties of cellulose fibrils.