Fabrication of honeycomb-patterned cellulose material that mimics wood cell wall formation processes

Wood cell wall, composed of polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicelluloses) and an aromatic polymer (lignin), exhibits a honeycomb-like alignment. We have been making attempts to fabricate cellulose-based materials to reconstruct these wood components artificially, mimicking their formation processes. Those attempts are aiming not only at better understanding of the significance and the function of each wood component, but also at providing a novel, biomass-based polymer material with functionality. This article outlines a protocol to prepare honeycomb-patterned cellulose films with two different polymorphisms, carrying different pore sizes, as a basic framework of the artificial cell wall structure. It also illustrates the effect of the presence of hemicellulose and lignin on the physical property of the honeycomb-patterned cellulose films, when they were adsorbed onto the films. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.