Workshop: Sorption Science Innovations in Cellulosic Material Characterization

Surface Measurement Systems and the University of British Columbia collaborated to provide three in-depth presentations exploring the latest research, case studies, and findings. This workshop offers unparalleled insight into the use of sorption science techniques in the field of cellulosic materials and characterization.

Characterization of Cellulose-based Materials by Dynamic Vapor Sorption with Dr. Daniel Burnett

Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth, and can be found in plants, marine animals, algae, and bacteria. Depending on the source of the cellulose and the chemical treatment, the resulting material can vary in crystal structure, degree of crystallinity, surface chemistry, morphology and aspect ratio. Therefore, it is critical to fully characterize surface and bulk properties of cellulose, nanocellulose, and cellulose-based materials to understand formulation and development challenges, composite performance, storage conditions, and processing behavior. This educational and informational webinar focuses on the use of Dynamic Vapor Sorption to study these surface and bulk properties of cellulose, nanocellulose and wood-based materials.

Structures and Surface Interactions in Plant-based Materials: From Particles to Thin films with Dr. Orlando Rojas

We use various lignocellulose sources to prepare particles and thin films, for example, by spin coating, Langmuir deposition or convective assembly from dispersed and multiphase media. A combination of bi-component systems have been produced as 2D structures that include bicontinuous morphologies. Such structures are translated into microfibers with the assistance of electrospinning, wet and dry spinning. Changes in the surface energy behaviors, morphology and other characteristics are determined as a function of chemical conversion, which enable surface energy switching. This allows for possibilities in the development of new materials and platforms, for example, in sensing, control release and optical devices, some of which will be illustrated. We make use of lignin particles and ligno-nanocellulosic filaments as examples of systems with tailorable water sorption and surface energy, as characterized by methods such as dynamic vapor sorption and inverse gas chromatography.

Comprehensive Surface Characterization of Cellulose-Based Materials using Inverse Gas Chromatography and other Sorption Techniques with Dr. Anett Kondor


The applicability and capability of sorption techniques for comprehensive surface characterization of fibers including natural fibers, ligno-cellulosic fibers, cellulose nano-fibrils (CNFs), cellulose nano-crystals (CNCs) are proved and presented in several studies. This presentation provides comprehensive surface characterization of recycled and non-recycled cellulose-based bathroom tissues including the dispersive and specific surface free energy, acid-base properties, and BET specific surface area, furthermore, complete water sorption and desorption behavior at 25 C. In addition, it presents a critical overview of the specific surface area analysis of cellulosic materials.