Assembling Native Elementary Cellulose Nanofibrils via a Reversible and Regioselective Surface Functionalization
Marco Beaumont, Blaise L. Tardy, Guillermo Reyes, Tetyana V. Koso, Elisabeth Schaubmayr, Paul Jusner, Alistair W. T. King, Raymond R. Dagastine, Antje Potthast, Orlando J. Rojas, Thomas Rosenau
Abstract
-succinylimidazole, achieving regioselective surface modification of C6-OH, which can be reverted using mild post-treatments. No polymer degradation, cross-linking, nor changes in crystallinity occur under the mild processing conditions, yielding cellulose nanofibrils bearing carboxyl moieties, which can be removed by saponification. The latter offers a significant opportunity in the reconstitution of the chemical and structural interfaces associated with the native states. Consequently, 3D structuring of native elementary cellulose nanofibrils is made possible with the same supramolecular features as the biosynthesized fibers, which is required to unlock the full potential of cellulose as a sustainable building block.