Structural characterisation of wood pulp fibres and their nanofibrillated materials for biodegradable composite applications

Introduction: The utilization of wood pulp fibres in composite materials has gained major interest during the last years. One of the major motivations has been the potential of wood pulp fibres and their nanofibrillated derivatives for increasing the mechanical properties of some materials. However, in order to exploit the full potential of wood pulp fibres and cellulose nanofibrils as reinforcement in hydrophilic and hydrophobic matrices, several characteristics of fibres and their interactions with a given matrix need to be understood. With the increasing capabilities of novel microscopy techniques and computerized image analysis, structural analysis is moving forward from visual and subj…