Continuous Assembly of Cellulose Nanofibrils and Nanocrystals into Strong Macrofibers through Microfluidic Spinning

Microfluidic fiber spinning is a promising technique for assembling cellulose nanomaterials into macroscopic fibers. However, its implementation requires upscalabe fabrication processes while maintaining high strength of the fibers, which could not be previously achieved. Herein, a continuous wet spinning process based on microfluidic flow focusing is developed to produce strong fibers from cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and nanocrystals (CNCs). Fibers with an average breaking tenacity as high as 29.5 cN tex(-1) and Young's modulus of 1146 cN tex(-1) are reported for the first time, produced from nonhighly purified CNF grades. Using the same developed method, wet spinning of fibers from CNCs is achieved for the first time, reaching an average Young's modulus of 1263 cN tex(-1) and a breaking tenacity of 10.6 cN tex(-1), thus exhibiting strength twice as high as that of common CNC films. A rather similar stiffness of CNC and CNF spun fibers may originate from similar degrees of alignment, as confirmed by wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and birefringence measurements, whereas lower strength may primarily arise from the shorter length of CNCs compared to that of CNFs. The benefit of CNCs is their higher solids content in the dopes. By combining both CNCs and CNFs, the fiber properties can be tuned.