Nanostructures of etherified arabinoxylans and the effect of arabinose content on material properties

Ratchawit Janewithayapun; Mikael S Hedenqvist; Fabrice Cousin; Alexander Idström; Lars Evenäs; Patricia Lopez-Sanchez; Gunnar Westman; Anette Larsson; Anna Ström

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.121846

Nanostructures of etherified arabinoxylans and the effect of arabinose content on material properties

Carbohydr Polym. 2024 May 1:331:121846. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.121846. Epub 2024 Jan 24.

Authors

Ratchawit Janewithayapun¹, Mikael S Hedenqvist², Fabrice Cousin³, Alexander Idström⁴, Lars Evenäs⁵, Patricia Lopez-Sanchez⁶, Gunnar Westman⁵, Anette Larsson⁵, Anna Ström⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden; FibRe Center for Lignocellulose-based Thermoplastics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
² FibRe Center for Lignocellulose-based Thermoplastics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Science in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden; Wallenberg Wood Science Center, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, Université Paris-Saclay, UMR 12, CEA-CNRS, 91191 Gif Sur Yvette, France.
⁴ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁵ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden; FibRe Center for Lignocellulose-based Thermoplastics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden; Wallenberg Wood Science Center, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁶ Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition, and Food Science. Facultad de Ciencias, Instituto de Materiales (IMATUS), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Campus Terra, 27002 Lugo, Spain.
⁷ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden; FibRe Center for Lignocellulose-based Thermoplastics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 38388051
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2024.121846

Abstract

To further our understanding of a thermoplastic arabinoxylan (AX) material obtained through an oxidation-reduction-etherification pathway, the role of the initial arabinose:xylose ratio on the material properties was investigated. Compression molded films with one molar substitution of butyl glycidyl ether (BGE) showed markedly different tensile behaviors. Films made from low arabinose AX were less ductile, while those made from high arabinose AX exhibited elastomer-like behaviors. X-ray scattering confirmed the presence of nanostructure formation resulting in nano-domains rich in either AX or BGE, from side chain grafting. The scattering data showed variations in the presence of ordered structures, nano-domain sizes and their temperature response between AX with different arabinose contents. In dynamic mechanical testing, three transitions were observed at approximately -90 °C, -50 °C and 80 °C, with a correlation between samples with more structured nano-domains and those with higher onset transition temperatures and lower storage modulus decrease. The mechanical properties of the final thermoplastic AX material can therefore be tuned by controlling the composition of the starting material.

Keywords: Etherification; Hemicellulose; Mechanical properties; Oxidation; Thermoplasticity; Wheat bran.