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Structure–property relationships of blended polysaccharide and protein biomaterials in ionic liquid

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Abstract

Cellulose and silk blended biomaterial films were regenerated from ionic liquid solution and investigated to characterize and understand the effect of inter- and intra-molecular interactions upon the morphology and thermal properties. The blended films were dissolved in 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ionic liquid, coagulated and regenerated with water. Various characterization techniques were implemented to characterize structural, morphological and thermal properties: FTIR, SEM, TGA, DSC and X-ray scattering. The results showed that the cellulose microcrystalline structure and β-sheets from the silk can be disrupted by inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonds forming intermediate semicrystalline or amorphous structures. The SEM showed morphological effects of such interactions that cause varying thermal degradation and glass transition temperature. The X-ray scattering confirms such findings at the molecular level, demonstrating that the cellulose microfibril diameter decreases as the silk content increases. It also shows that the β-sheets size increases as the cellulose content increases. These various techniques provide evidence that suggest the hydrogen bonds between the β-sheets and the glucose units in the cellulose chains control the thermal and structural properties of the blended films, changing the morphology and physicochemical properties.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to acknowledge the funding provided by the Rutgers University-Camden Laboratory Start-up funds, and State of New Jersey ELF Grant to Rutgers-Chemistry. We would like to thank The LRSM at the University of Pennsylvania for allowing us to use the X-Ray Scattering equipment. Finally, we would like to thank Mr. Robert Kristin and Ms. Michel Ntiri for their assistant in preparing the films. The authors would like to thank Fang Wang for her initial support and assistance with DSC analysis. This study was also supported by the Rowan University Start-up Grants, NSF-MRI Program (DMR-1338014) and New Jersey Space Grant Consortium.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University-Camden, 315 Penn Street, Camden, NJ, 08102, USA

    John Stanton, Darrel Cowan & David Salas-de la Cruz

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road, Glassboro, NJ, 08028, USA

    Ye Xue & Xiao Hu

  3. Department of Biology, Rutgers University-Camden, 315 Penn Street, Camden, NJ, 08102, USA

    Joshua C. Waters & Ashley Lewis

  4. Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University-Camden, 315 Penn Street, Camden, NJ, 08102, USA

    David Salas-de la Cruz

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  1. John Stanton
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Correspondence to David Salas-de la Cruz.

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Stanton, J., Xue, Y., Waters, J.C. et al. Structure–property relationships of blended polysaccharide and protein biomaterials in ionic liquid. Cellulose 24, 1775–1789 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1208-y

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