Morphology of polysaccharide blend fibers shaped from NaOH, N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find newly structured biopolymer blends bearing those adjustable features able to produce innovative materials. Apart from cellulose derivatives (cellulose carbamate and carboxymethyl cellulose), mannans (guar gum, locust bean gum, and tragacanth gum), xylan, starch (cationized), ι-carrageenan, and xanthan were chosen as blend polysaccharides for cellulose as matrix. In order to study their integration into the cellulose skeleton, fibers were shaped from three different solvents: NaOH by a special wet-spinning process, as well as N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EMIMac) via Lyocell technology. The structure and morphologies of the fibers were analyzed by X-ray wide-angle scattering and atomic force microscopy. Hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties were determined by means of a contact angle, as well as moisture content and water retention values, while the surface properties throughout zeta-potential measurements. Being very different processes, the wet spinning in NaOH solution and the dry–wet spinning are deeply impacted by the types of solvent and polysaccharide. The X-ray results for NMMO fibers revealed the highest orientation compared with EMIMac having the lowest orientation of NaOH fibrous types. AFM images also show the lowest surface roughnesses for NMMO and EMIMac fibers. The moisture content and water retention values support these trends, while the water contact angle results show insignificant differences between the samples from EMIMac and NaOH, even though the values calculated for NMMO fibers were the lowest.