Influence of formic acid esterified cellulose nanofibrils on compressive strength, resilience and thermal stability of polyvinyl alcohol-xylan hydrogel

Wei Fang; Tao Song; Lisheng Wang; Tingting Han; Zhouyang Xiang; Orlando J Rojas

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.120663

Influence of formic acid esterified cellulose nanofibrils on compressive strength, resilience and thermal stability of polyvinyl alcohol-xylan hydrogel

Carbohydr Polym. 2023 May 15:308:120663. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.120663. Epub 2023 Feb 4.

Authors

Wei Fang¹, Tao Song², Lisheng Wang³, Tingting Han⁴, Zhouyang Xiang⁵, Orlando J Rojas⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China; Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Sensing Materials & Devices, Centre for Advanced Analytical Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, c/o School of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, Guangzhou 510006, PR China. Electronic address: songt@scut.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China; Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Sensing Materials & Devices, Centre for Advanced Analytical Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, c/o School of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
⁴ Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Sensing Materials & Devices, Centre for Advanced Analytical Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, c/o School of Civil Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China. Electronic address: tinghan@gzhu.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Biorefinery, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
⁶ Bioproducts Institute, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, 2360 East Mall, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada; Bioproducts Institute, Department of Chemistry, 2360 East Mall, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada; Bioproducts Institute, Department of Wood Science, 2360 East Mall, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada.

PMID: 36813346
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.120663

Abstract

Having competitive compressive strength and resilience as well as biocompatibility simultaneously still remains a challenge for composite hydrogels, which is critical if they are aimed for use as functional biomaterials. In the present work, a facile and green method was designed for producing a composite hydrogel based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and xylan with sodium tri-metaphosphate (STMP) as cross-linker, aiming to specially enhance its compressive properties with the aid of eco-friendly produced formic acid esterified cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs). The CNF addition caused a compressive strength decrease of the hydrogels, although the values (2.34-4.57 MPa at a compressive strain of 70 %) were still at a high level among the reported PVA (or polysaccharide) based hydrogels so far. However, the compressive resilience of the hydrogels was enhanced significantly by the CNF addition, with maximal compressive strength retention of 88.49 % and 99.67 % in height recovery after 1000 compression cycles at a strain of 30 %, which reflects the significant influence of CNFs on the compressive recovery ability of the hydrogel. All materials used in the present work are naturally non-toxic with good biocompatible, which makes the synthesized hydrogels with great potential in biomedical applications, e.g., soft-tissue engineering.

Keywords: Cellulose nanofibrils; Compressive properties; Hydrogel; Polyvinyl alcohol; Thermal-stability; Xylan.