Super Strong All-Cellulose Composite Filaments by Combination of Inducing Nanofiber Formation and Adding Nanofibrillated Cellulose

In this work, super strong all-cellulose multi filaments were obtained from cellulose dissolved in LiOH/urea system by inducing nanofiber formation, and were simultaneously reinforced by the introduction of TEMPO oxidized nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) with mean diameter of 20 nm. The all-cellulose composite filaments (CF) containing only 3 wt % NFC exhibits a high orientation that Herman's parameter is 0.89. Importantly, the NFC can simultaneously reinforce and toughen the CF, with a tensile strength and elongation at break of 3.92 cN/dT and 14.6%, respectively, which make the obtained CF to become super strong. The strengthened mechanism of CF is considered as the nanofibril-induced crystallization and orientation, which makes up for the deficits and constructs a flawless structure in the regenerated cellulose filaments. Of note, the stability of spinning dope was also effectively improved by adding small amount of NFC, which is very important for fiber spinning on industry. This finding contributes to the preparation of high performance regenerated cellulose multifilaments by a simple, energy-efficient, and eco-friendly route.