Model films of cellulose II -: improved preparation method and characterization of the cellulose film

An optimization study of the preparation of spin-coated cellulose model films from the NMMO/DMSO system on silicon wafers has been made. The study shows that the cellulose concentration in the solution determines the cellulose film thickness and that the temperature of the solution affects the surface roughness. A lower solution temperature results in a lower surface roughness at cellulose concentrations below 0.8%. Using the described method, it is possible to prepare films with thicknesses of 30-90 nm with a constant surface roughness by changing the cellulose concentration, i.e. by dilution with DMSO. On these films, water has a contact angle less than 20degrees and about 50% of the material can, according to CP/MAS C-13-NMR spectroscopy on corresponding fibrous material, be considered to consist of crystalline cellulose II type material. It has further been shown that AFM can be used to determine the thickness of cellulose films, in both dry and wet states. In this method, the difference in height between the top surface and the underlying wafer has been measured at an incision made into the cellulose film. The cellulose films have also been spin-coated with the same technique as on the silicon oxide wafer onto the crystal in a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). These model films were found to be suitable for swelling measurements with the QCM. The films were very stable during this type of measurement and films with different amounts of charges gave different swelling responses depending on their charges. As expected, films with a higher charge showed a higher swelling.