Abstract
The fibrillar structure of aqueous methylcellulose (MC) gels was probed using a combination of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), ultra-small-angle neutron scattering (USANS), and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). The effect of molecular weight (Mw) and concentration on the gel structure was explored. The fibrillar morphology was consistently observed at elevated temperatures (≥70 °C), independent of concentration and Mw. Moreover, the fibril dimensions extracted from SANS by fitting to a scattering function for semiflexible cylinders with disperse radii revealed that the fibril diameter of ca. 14 ± 1 nm is constant for a mass fraction range of 0.01%–3.79% and for all Mw investigated (49–530 kg/mol). Comparison of the measured SANS curves with predicted scattering traces revealed that at 70 °C the fibrils contain an average volume fraction of 40% polymer. Taking linear combinations of low temperature (solution state) and high temperature (gel state) SANS traces, the progression of...
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