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Untangling the threads of cellulose mercerization

Author

Listed:
  • Daisuke Sawada

    (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

  • Yoshiharu Nishiyama

    (Affiliated with the Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble, BP 53)

  • Riddhi Shah

    (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

  • V. Trevor Forsyth

    (Institut Laue-Langevin & Partnership for Structural Biology
    Lund University
    LINXS Institute of Advanced Neutron and X-ray Science)

  • Estelle Mossou

    (Institut Laue-Langevin & Partnership for Structural Biology)

  • Hugh Michael O’Neill

    (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

  • Masahisa Wada

    (Kyoto University)

  • Paul Langan

    (Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    Institut Laue-Langevin)

Abstract

Naturally occurring plant cellulose, our most abundant renewable resource, consists of fibers of long polymer chains that are tightly packed in parallel arrays in either of two crystal phases collectively referred to as cellulose I. During mercerization, a process that involves treatment with sodium hydroxide, cellulose goes through a conversion to another crystal form called cellulose II, within which every other chain has remarkably changed direction. We designed a neutron diffraction experiment with deuterium labelling in order to understand how this change of cellulose chain direction is possible. Here we show that during mercerization of bacterial cellulose, chains fold back on themselves in a zigzag pattern to form crystalline anti-parallel domains. This result provides a molecular level understanding of one of the most widely used industrial processes for improving cellulosic materials.

Suggested Citation

  • Daisuke Sawada & Yoshiharu Nishiyama & Riddhi Shah & V. Trevor Forsyth & Estelle Mossou & Hugh Michael O’Neill & Masahisa Wada & Paul Langan, 2022. "Untangling the threads of cellulose mercerization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-33812-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33812-w
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