Article ID: 1901
The practicality of sedimentation method for evaluating the diameter and morphology of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) in CNF dispersions was studied using CNFs with different degrees of fibrillation prepared by the mechanical fibrillation of softwood bleached kraft pulp. Evaluations of the CNF dispersions were performed using a stability analyzer and centrifuge particle size analyzer based on the gravitational sedimentation method and differential centrifugal sedimentation (DCS) method, respectively. The sedimentation behavior of CNFs provided by the stability analyzer reflected the fiber morphologies, and good correlation was found between the Stokes’ diameter obtained by the DCS method and the fiber diameters estimated from field-emission scanning electron microscopy observations. These results show the possibility of using analysis based on the sedimentation method for evaluating the diameter and morphology of cellulose fibers in CNF dispersions, including the cellulose fibers obtained by fibrillation.
