Abstract
Vulcanized fibers are all-cellulose materials made from cotton and/or wood cellulose after aqueous zinc chloride treatment. These materials were invented in the UK in the mid-nineteenth century and is widely used because of their excellent characteristics, such as impact resistance and electrical insulation. Recently the matured vulcanized fibers have been recognized as renewable and biodegradable materials and reevaluated with advanced cellulose technologies derived from cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) and all-cellulose composites. The microscopic analysis based on the improved freeze-drying method revealed that the strength of vulcanized fiber sheets can be attributed to the chemically defibrillated CNFs. The architecture is similar to all-cellulose composites made from the same raw materials in which the residual cellulose fibers serve as reinforcement, and the CNFs serve as adhesives or matrix components. In this report, we describe the history and structural characteristics of vulcanized fibers and introduce a new aspect in aqueous zinc chloride treatment of cellulose.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully thank Special Prof. Akira Isogai for helpful discussions and comments on the manuscript. English editing cost was supported by the Cellulose Society of Japan.
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This work was supported by Hokuetsu Corporation and Hokuetsu Toyo Fibre Co., Ltd. The authors are employees of Hokuetsu Corporation.
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Nemoto, J., Nakamata, K. All-cellulose material prepared using aqueous zinc chloride solution. Cellulose 29, 2795–2803 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04344-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04344-1