Cellulose, a renewable bio-polymer (wood, plants (cotton), animals and bacteria), replaces non-cellulose materials, a renewable bio-polymer derived from wood, plants (cotton), animals and bacteria, replaces non-biodegradable materials. Its crystals are insoluble in water. Aggressive, polluting industrial solvents can be replaced by recoverable, non-volatile molten salts – ionic liquids (ILs). It is “regenerated” (recrystallized), by adding water, into textile fibers and films….
X-ray Diffusion at Small Angles (SAXS), thanks to the high flux of synchrotrons, reveals, for solutions :
- highly diluted: individual chains are rod-like, with maybe curvature at distances > 7 nm.
- more concentrated: distances between chains (“structure”). Very close together, they do not aggregate nor exhibit periodic order.
For our first Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) measurements, we synthesized deuterated solvents, but were unable to eliminate aggregates from bacterial deuterated cellulose. We however confirm the basic SAXS results.