Synthesis of starch-based composite particles presents itself as an interesting route for the development of new sustainable functional materials. Polymer fraction of such composites act as an adsorption and packing surface for inorganic particles, and at the same time offers the possibility for further functionalization/cross-linking. Present research deals with the preparation of composite particles, consisting of a starch matrix with incorporated magnetic iron oxide particles (Fe3O4), where a higher packing density of magnetic particles is expected while a starch layer will serve to prevent their oxidation. Such composite particles were either adsorbed and attached onto cellulose fibrous web and pulp fibres or incorporated into the fibre matrix in a form of a polymer gel.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 16183574An attempt to unravel the changes in structural rearrangement/reorganization of amorphous cellulose model thin film upon heat treatment is made. Similar to the hornification of fibers and pulps, heat treatment of amorphous cellulose thin films should have a significant impact on its structure and surface morphology. Consequently, several well defined partly and fully regenerated cellulose model films are prepared from spin coated trimethylsilylcellulose (TMSC) and subjected to heat treatment at 105 °C for 6hours. The changes in the structural rearrangement, elemental composition, structure, and hydrophobicity of such model films before and after heat treatment are investigated by several methods such as AFM, ATR-IR, XPS spectroscopy, GIXRD, wetting and D2O/H2O solvent exchange experiments. The use of partly regenerated cellulose model films should provide information about the role of hydrogen bonding in the drying process upon correlation with XPS data which gives information on the degree of substitution of silyl groups. It is known, that there is hardly any hydrogen bonding between the cellulose strains in highly substituted TMSC; therefore controlled changes in the amount of silyl groups present in the films facilitate the evaluation of the influence of hydrogen bonding to heat induced changes.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 16341782