Liquid crystal of nanocellulose whiskers' grafted with acrylamide

12% acrylamide (AM) was grafted onto the surface of nanocellulose whiskers (NCW), which was self-assembled to be the chiral nematic suspension at 3% content. The acrylamide grafted NCW (AM-g-NCW) was characterized with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The grafting ratio was measured by elemental analysis. The degrees of crystallinity of the AM-g-NCW were measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The liquid crystalline properties of the AM-g-NCW were investigated by the polarizing optical microscopy (POM). The AM-g-NCW was found to self-assembly to be a lyotropic state. (C) 2011 Dai Yong Ye. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.