Morphological Changes of Polymer-Grafted Nanocellulose during a Drying Process

Nanocellulose is emerging as a sustainable building blockin materialsscience. Surface modification via polymer grafting has proven to beeffective in tuning diverse material properties of nanocellulose,including wettability of films and the reinforcement effect in polymermatrices. Despite its widespread use in various environments, thestructure of a single polymer-grafted nanocellulose remains poorlyunderstood. Here, we investigate the morphologies of polymer-graftedCNFs at water-mica and air-mica interfaces by usingall-atom molecular dynamics simulation and atomic force microscopy.We show that the morphologies of the polymer-grafted CNFs undergoa marked change in response to the surrounding environment due tovariations in the conformation of the surface polymer chains. Ourresults provide novel insights into the molecular structure of polymer-graftedCNFs and can facilitate the design and development of innovative biomass-basednanomaterials.

Automated summary

Nanocellulose is a sustainable building block in materials science. Polymer grafting can modify its surface and adjust its material properties. However, the structure of a single polymer-grafted nanocellulose is not well understood. This study uses molecular dynamics simulation and atomic force microscopy to investigate the morphology of polymer-grafted CNFs at different interfaces. The results provide insights into the molecular structure and can contribute to the development of biomass-based nanomaterials.