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Cellulose laminates represent a remarkable convergence of natural materials and modern engineering, offering a wide range of versatile applications in sustainable packaging, construction, and advanced materials. In this study, novel all-cellulose laminates are developed using an environmentally friendly approach, where freshly regenerated cellulose II films are stacked without the need for solvents (for impregnation and/or partial dissolution), chemical modifications, or resins. The structural and mechanical properties of these all-cellulose laminates were thoroughly investigated. This simple and scalable procedure results in transparent laminates with exceptional mechanical properties comparable to or even superior to common plastics, with E-modulus higher than 9 GPa for a single layer and 7 GPa for the laminates. These laminates are malleable and can be easily patterned. Depending on the number of layers, they can be thin and flexible (with just one layer) or thick and rigid (with three layers). Laminates were also doped with 10 wt% undissolved fibers without compromising their characteristics. These innovative all-cellulose laminates present a robust, eco-friendly alternative to traditional synthetic materials, thus bridging the gap between environmental responsibility and high-performance functionality., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

2-Dodecyldiethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (C 12 -DTPA) is a chelating, amphoteric surfactant with a bulky headgroup containing eight pH-responsive groups. The hypothesis was that the amphoteric nature of the chelating surfactant would affect the interaction with another surfactant and, consequently, also the composition of mixed surface layers. Binary mixed monolayers of C 12 -DTPA and the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) were examined using neutron reflection and surface tension measurements. The experiments were conducted at pH 5, where the C 12 -DTPA monomers carried a net negative charge. Surface excess calculations at low total surfactant concentration revealed that the chelating surfactant dominated the surface composition. However, as the concentration was raised, the surface composition shifted toward an SDS-dominant state. This phenomenon was attributed to the increased ionic strength at increased concentrations, which altered the balance between competing entropic forces in the system. Interaction parameters for mixed monolayer formation were calculated, following a framework based on regular solution theory. In accordance with the hypothesis, the chelating surfactant's ability to modulate its charge and mitigate repulsive interactions in the surface layer resulted in favorable interactions between the anionic SDS and negatively charged C 12 -DTPA monomers. These interactions were found to be concentration-dependent, which was consistent with the observed shift in the surface layer composition., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

In the history of cellulose chemistry, hydrogen bonding has been the predominant explanation when discussing intermolecular interactions between cellulose polymers. This is the general consensus in scholarly textbooks and in many research articles, and it applies to several other biomacromolecules' interactions as well. This rather unbalanced description of cellulose has likely impacted the development of materials based on the processing of cellulose-for example, via dissolution in various solvent systems and regeneration into solid materials, such as films and fibers, and even traditional wood fiber handling and papermaking. In this review, we take as a starting point the questioning of the general description of the nature of cellulose and cellulose interactions initiated by Professor Björn Lindman, based on generic physicochemical reasoning about surfactants and polymers. This dispute, which became known as "the Lindman hypothesis", highlights the importance of hydrophobic interactions in cellulose systems and that cellulose is an amphiphilic polymer. This paper elaborates on Björn Lindman's contribution to the subject, which has caused the scientific community to revisit cellulose and reconsider certain phenomena from other perspectives.

Cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) is a possible candidate, being a raw material derived from renewable resources, to replace fossil-based materials. This is due to its thermoplastic properties and the relative ease with which it could be implemented within the existing industry. With a significant amount of variation in CAB on the market today, a knowledge gap has been identified regarding the understanding of the polymer structural arrangement in films. This relates to the underlying mechanisms that regulate CAB film material properties, insights that are important in product development. In this study, commercially available CAB was investigated with XRD, SEM, AFM, and TOPEM DSC in order to obtain physicochemical information related to its micro-structural features in solvent-cast films. The film-forming ability relates mostly to the number of hydroxyl groups, and the semi-crystallinity of the films depends on the type and position of the side groups along the cellulose backbone. The appearance of signs of possible cholesteric ordering in the films could be connected to higher amounts of hydroxyl groups along the backbone that disturb the helix arrangement, while the overall order was primarily related to the butyrate substitution and secondarily related to the molecular weight of the particular CAB studied. Cold crystallization was also observed in one CAB sample.

Aqueous sodium hydroxide solutions are extensively used as solvents for lignin in kraft pulping. These are also appealing systems for cellulose dissolution due to their inexpensiveness, ease to recycle and low toxicity. Cellulose dissolution occurs in a narrow concentration region and at low temperatures. Dissolution is often incomplete but additives, such as zinc oxide or urea, have been found to significantly improve cellulose dissolution. In this work, lignin was explored as a possible beneficial additive for cellulose dissolution. Lignin was found to improve cellulose dissolution in cold alkali, extending the NaOH concentration range to lower values. The regenerated cellulose material from the NaOH-lignin solvents was found to have a lower crystallinity and crystallite size than the samples prepared in the neat NaOH and NaOH-urea solvents. Beneficial lignin-cellulose interactions in solution state appear to be preserved under coagulation and regeneration, reducing the tendency of crystallization of cellulose., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In this study, the effect of different alcohols and esters as a coagulation medium in the regeneration of cellulose dissolved in an aqueous LiOH-urea-based solvent was thoroughly investigated using various methods such as solid state NMR, X-ray diffraction, water contact angle, oxygen gas permeability, mechanical testing, and scanning electron microscopy. It was observed that several material properties of the regenerated cellulose films follow trends that correlate to the degree of cellulose II crystallinity, which is determined to be set by the miscibility of the coagulant medium (nonsolvent) and the aqueous alkali cellulose solvent rather than the nonsolvents' polarity. This article provides an insight, thus creating a possibility to carefully tune and control the cellulose material properties when tailor-made for different applications., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Neutron and X-ray reflection measurements have been used to study the structure of the adsorbed layer of a chelating surfactant at the air/liquid interface. The chelating surfactant 2-dodecyldiethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (C 12 -DTPA) has a large headgroup containing eight donor atoms that can participate in the coordination of metal ions. The donor atoms are also titrating, resulting in an amphoteric surfactant that can adopt a number of differently charged species depending on the pH. Very strong coordination complexes are formed with metal ions, where the metal ion can be considered as part of the surfactant structure, in contrast to monovalent cations that act as regular counterions to the negative net charge. Adsorption was investigated over a large concentration interval, from well below the critical micelle concentration (cmc) to five times the cmc. The most striking result is the maximum in the surface excess found around the cmc, which is consistent with previous indications from surface tension measurements. Adding divalent metal ions has a limited effect on the adsorption at the air/liquid interface. The reason is the coordination of the metal ion, resulting in compensating deprotonation of the complex. Small variations in the headgroup area of different metal complexes are found, correlating to the conditional stability constants. Adding sodium chloride has a significant effect on the adsorption behavior, and the results indicate that the protonation equilibrium is more important than the ionic strength effects. From combined fits of the neutron and X-ray data, a model that consists of a thick headgroup region and a relatively thin dehydrated tail region is found, and it indicates that the tails are not fully extended and that the limiting area per molecule is determined by the bulky headgroup.

The correlation between interaction parameters and ion flotation efficiency in mixtures of chelating surfactant metal complexes and different foaming agents was investigated. We have recently shown that chelating surfactant 2-dodecyldiethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (4-C12-DTPA) forms strong coordination complexes with divalent metal ions, and this can be utilized in ion flotation. Interaction parameters for mixed micelles and mixed monolayer formation for Mg(2+) and Ni(2+) complexes with the chelating surfactant 4-C12-DTPA and different foaming agents were calculated by Rubingh's regular solution theory. Parameters for the calculations were extracted from surface tension measurements and NMR diffusometry. The effects of metal ion coordination on the interactions between 4-C12-DTPA and the foaming agents could be linked to a previously established difference in coordination chemistry between the examined metal ions. As can be expected from mixtures of amphoteric surfactants, the interactions were strongly pH-dependent. Strong correlation was found between interaction parameter β(σ) for mixed monolayer formation and the phase-transfer efficiency of Ni(2+) complexes with 4-C12-DTPA during flotation in a customized flotation cell. In a mixture of Cu(2+) and Zn(2+), the significant difference in conditional stability constants (log K) between the metal complexes was utilized to selectively recover the metal complex with the highest log K (Cu(2+)) by ion flotation. Flotation experiments in an excess concentration of metal ions confirmed the coordination of more than one metal ion to the headgroup of 4-C12-DTPA.

Coordination complexes of some divalent metal ions with the DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid)-based chelating surfactant 2-dodecyldiethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (4-C12-DTPA) have been examined in terms of chelation and solution behavior. The headgroup of 4-C12-DTPA contains eight donor atoms that can participate in the coordination of a metal ion. Conditional stability constants for five transition metal complexes with 4-C12-DTPA were determined by competition measurements between 4-C12-DTPA and DTPA, using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Small differences in the relative strength between the coordination complexes of DTPA and 4-C12-DTPA indicated that the hydrocarbon tail only affected the chelating ability of the headgroup to a limited extent. The coordination of Cu(2+) ions was investigated in particular, using UV-visible spectroscopy. By constructing Job's plots, it was found that 4-C12-DTPA could coordinate up to two Cu(2+) ions. Surface tension measurements and NMR diffusometry showed that the coordination of metal ions affected the solution behavior of 4-C12-DTPA, but there were no specific trends between the studied divalent metal complexes. Generally, the effects of the metal ion coordination could be linked to the neutralization of the headgroup charge of 4-C12-DTPA, and the resulting reduced electrostatic repulsions between adjacent surfactants in micelles and monolayers. The pH vs concentration plots, on the other hand, showed a distinct difference between 4-C12-DTPA complexes of the alkaline earth metals and the transition metals. This was explained by the difference in coordination between the two groups of metal ions, as predicted by the hard and soft acid and base (HSAB) theory.

Mixtures of ionic surfactants and the chelating surfactant 2-dodecyldiethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (4-C12-DTPA) have been examined in terms of interactions in mixed micellar systems. The amphoteric 4-C12-DTPA is zwitterionic with a negative net charge at the studied pH levels. The investigated ionic surfactants were the cationic dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride (DoTAC), the anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and the zwitterionic dimethyldodecylamine-N-oxide (DDAO). The surfactants all have the same hydrophobic chain lengths, and the results are evaluated in terms of headgroup interactions. 4-C12-DTPA interacts with different ionic surfactants by accepting or donating protons to the aqueous solution to increase the attractive interactions between the two surfactants; i.e., the protonation equilibrium of 4-C12-DTPA is shifted in different directions depending on whether there are predominant repulsions between positively or negatively charged groups in the mixed micelles. This was monitored by measuring pH vs concentration in the mixed systems. By measuring the pH, it was also possible to study the shift in the protonation equilibrium at increasing concentration, as the composition in the micelles approaches the composition in the total solution. Following the approach of Rubingh's regular solution theory, the interaction parameter β for mixed micelle formation was calculated from the cmc values determined by NMR diffusometry. Synergism in mixed micelle formation and negative β parameters were found in all of the investigated systems. As expected, the most negative β parameter was found in the mixture with DoTAC, followed by DDAO and SDS. The self-diffusion in the 4-C12-DTPA/DoTAC system was also discussed. The self-diffusion coefficient vs concentration plots show two distinctly different curves, depending on the surfactant that is present in excess.

The solution behavior of a DTPA (diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid)-based chelating surfactant, 4-C12-DTPA, has been studied by tensiometry and NMR diffusometry. In the absence of metal ions, the eight donor atoms in the headgroup are titrating, and the charge of the headgroup can thus be tuned by altering the pH. 4-C12-DTPA changes from cationic at very low pH, over a number of zwitterionic species as the pH is increased, and eventually becomes anionic at high pH. Around the isoelectric point, the chelating surfactant precipitated. The solution properties, studied above the solubility gap, were found strongly pH dependent. When increasing the amount of negative charges in the headgroup, by increasing the pH, the adsorption efficiency was reduced and the cmc was increased. An optimum in surface tension reduction was found at pH 5, due to a proper balance between protonated and dissociated groups. Anomalies between surface tension measurements and NMR diffusometry in determination of cmc revealed a more complex relation between surface tension, surface coverage, and cmc than usually considered, which is not in line with the common interpretation of the Gibbs adsorption equation. At some of the investigated pH levels, measurements of bulk pH could confirm the location of cmc, due to the increased protonation of micelles compared to monomers in solution. The adsorption of monomers to the air-water interface showed unusually slow time dependence, evident from decreasing surface tension for several hours. This is explained by rearrangements of the large head groups to reduce the headgroup area and increase the packing parameter.