ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
pubs.acs.org/journal/ascecg
Research Article
Figure 2. Scanning electron micrographs of (A) EFB fiber nonwoven and EFB/(hairy) cellulose fiber nonwoven consisting of (B) 10 (C), 20, and (D) and 30 wt % (hairy) cellulose fibers loading. The labels (1) and (2) point out the EFB fiber and (hairy) cellulose fiber, respectively. Scale bar: 150 μ m.
and the morphologies of the respective hairy cellulose fibers are shown in Figure 1D − F, respectively. The areal density of the manufactured EFB/(hairy) cellulose fiber nonwovens was kept at 1000 g m − 2 . The weight fraction of (hairy) cellulose fiber binder used was varied between 10, 20, and 30 wt %. A detailed description of the manufacturing process and the characterization is provided in the electronic Supporting Information.
It can be seen from Figure 1 that increasing the refining time of the cellulose fibers in the colloid mill produces hairy cellulose fibers with a higher degree of fibrillation. This is also accompanied by an increase in the presence of fiber fines (see label a in Figure 1E,F). To further quantify the degree of fibrillation, the water retention value of the (hairy) cellulose fibers was evaluated. A suspension of (refined) cellulose fibers at a concentration of 5 g/L was vacuum-filtered and then centrifuged to remove any free water. 31 The degree of
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https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.5c00041 ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2025, 13, 6209 − 6221
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