Biobased cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) constitute important building blocks for biomimetic, nanostructured materials, and considerable potential exists in their hybridization with tailorable polymeric nanoparticles. CNFs naturally assemble into oriented, fibrillar structures in their cross-section. This work shows that polymeric nanoparticle additives have the potential to increase or decrease orientation of these cellulose structures, which allows the control of bulk mechanical properties. Small amounts of these additives (<1 wt%) are shown to promote the alignment of CNFs, and the particle size is found to determine a tailorable maximum feature size which can be modified. Herein, X-ray scattering allows for the quantification of orientation at different length scales. This newly developed method of measuring cross-sectional orientation allows for understanding the influence of nanoparticle characteristics on the CNF network structure at different length scales in hybrid cellulose-nanoparticle materials, where previously quantitative description has been lacking. It thus constitutes an important foundation for further development and understanding of nanocellulose materials on the level of their nanoscale building blocks and their interactions, which in turn are decisive for their macroscopic properties.

The ForMAX beamline at the MAX IV Laboratory provides multiscale and multimodal structural characterization of hierarchical materials in the nanometre to millimetre range by combining small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering with full-field microtomography. The modular design of the beamline is optimized for easy switching between different experimental modalities. The beamline has a special focus on the development of novel fibrous materials from forest resources, but it is also well suited for studies within, for example, food science and biomedical research.

The advent of diffraction-limited storage rings (DLSRs) has boosted the brilliance or coherent flux by one to two orders of magnitude with respect to the previous generation. One consequence of this brilliance enhancement is an increase in the flux density or number of photons per unit of area and time, which opens new possibilities for the spatiotemporal resolution of X-ray imaging techniques. This paper studies the time-resolved microscopy capabilities of such facilities by benchmarking the ForMAX beamline at the MAX IV storage ring. It is demonstrated that this enhanced flux density using a single harmonic of the source allows micrometre-resolution time-resolved imaging at 2000 tomograms per second and 1.1 MHz 2D acquisition rates using the full dynamic range of the detector system.

Achieving a sustainable foam production requires a complete substitution of synthetic components with natural and renewable alternatives, as well as development of an environment-friendly production process. This work demonstrates a synergetic combination of heat-treated beta-lactoglobulin proteins and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) to create fully bio-based and highly-stable wet foams. Furthermore, a gradual reduction in the pH, enabled oven-drying of the wet foams without any major structural collapse of the foam, resulting in the preparation of lightweight solid foams with the density of 10.2 kg.m(-3). First, the foaming behavior of heat-treated beta-lactoglobulin systems (HBSs) containing amyloid nanofibrils (ANFs) and non-converted peptides was investigated at different pHs. Subsequently, the HBS foams were stabilized using CNFs, followed by a gradual acidification of the system to a final pH of 4.5. To gain a deeper understanding of the stabilization mechanism of the foam, the interactions between the foam's components, their positioning in the foam structure, and the viscoelasticity of the fibrillar network were investigated using quartz crystal microgravimetry, confocal microscopy and rheology. The analysis of the obtained data suggests that the stability of the foams was associated with the accumulation of CNFs and ANFs at the air-water interface, and that the concomitant formation of an intertwined network surrounding the air bubbles. This together resulted in a significant decrease in drainage rate of the liquid in the foam lamellae, bubble coarsening and bubble coalescence within the foams. The results also show that the major surface-active component participating in the creation of the foam is the free peptide left in solution after the formation of the ANFs. A slow reduction in pH to 4.5 lead to further gelation of the fibrillar network and an improved storage modulus of the foam lamellae. This resulted in a strong coherent structure that could withstand oven-drying without collapse. The density, porosity, microstructure and compressive mechanical properties of such prepared dry foams were assessed. Overall, the results demonstrate the potential of HBSs to replace synthetic surfactants and outlines a sustainable preparation protocol for the preparation of light-weight porous composite structures of ANFs and CNFs.

We demonstrate a framework of interpreting data from x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy experiments with the aid of numerical simulations to describe nanoscale dynamics in soft matter. This is exemplified with the transport of passive tracer gold nanoparticles in networks of charge-stabilized cellulose nanofibers. The main structure of dynamic modes in reciprocal space could be replicated with a simulated system of confined Brownian motion, a digital twin, allowing for a direct measurement of important effective material properties describing the local environment of the tracers. 

Correlating nanostructure and optical properties of thin hybrid films is the crucial ingredient for designing sustainable applications ranging from structural colors in anticounterfeiting to sensors. Here, the tailoring of the refractive index of hybrid cellulose nanofibril/water-dispersed colloidal ink thin films is presented. The authors apply scalable, layer-by-layer slot-die coating for preparing the cellulose nanofibril and hybrid thin films. Making use of the mobility of the polymer chains in the colloids upon annealing, the influence of the different colloid sizes and their glass transition temperature on the refractive index of the hybrid material is shown. The complex refractive indices of the thin films are characterized by spectroscopic ellipsometry and correlated to the different nanostructures of the thin films. The authors find that post-deposition annealing changes the colloidal nanostructure from particulate to agglomerates. Depending on the size of the colloids, imbibition of the colloids into the cellulose nanofibril template is observed. This scalable approach offers new avenues in structural color functional biomaterial hybrid layers.

Cellulose fibrils are the structural backbone of plants and, if carefully liberated from biomass, a promising building block for a bio-based society. The mechanism of the mechanical release-fibrillation-is not yet understood, which hinders efficient production with the required reliable quality. One promising process for fine fibrillation and total fibrillation of cellulose is cavitation. In this study, we investigate the cavitation treatment of dissolving, enzymatically pretreated, and derivatized (TEMPO oxidized and carboxymethylated) cellulose fiber pulp by hydrodynamic and acoustic (i.e., sonication) cavitation. The derivatized fibers exhibited significant damage from the cavitation treatment, and sonication efficiently fibrillated the fibers into nanocellulose with an elementary fibril thickness. The breakage of cellulose fibers and fibrils depends on the number of cavitation treatment events. In assessing the damage to the fiber, we presume that microstreaming in the vicinity of imploding cavities breaks the fiber into fibrils, most likely by bending. A simple model showed the correlation between the fibrillation of the carboxymethylated cellulose (CMCe) fibers, the sonication power and time, and the relative size of the active zone below the sonication horn.

Biomimetic actuators are promising candidates for smart soft robotics. The applications of state-of-the-art actuators require the combination of programmable stimuli-responsiveness, excellent robustness, and efficient self-healing ability in a wide-range of working conditions. However, these properties may be mutually exclusive. Inspired by biological tissues, two kinds of polyelectrolytes including polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) are exploited as the fillers of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) for the fabrication of the CNF/PVA/PSS (CAS) film via the assembly of the physically-crosslinked network through multiple H-bonding and electrostatic interactions. Achieved by a casting-evaporation strategy, internal stress is stored within the polymer matrix and transforms into reversible anisotropic bending deformations in response to a humidity gradient. The speed, direction, and pitch of the bending can be programmed by tailoring the internal stresses and geometry of the samples. Moreover, the H-bonded network also contributes to the effective energy dissipation toward high toughness during tensile stretching, as well as self-healing ability during moisture saturation of the CAS films. This enables the fabrication of a humidity-sensitive flower-shaped actuator and self-healable packaging paper. This study presents a biomimetic strategy for the fabrication of multi-functional soft robotics, which holds great promise for applications in the fields of biosensors and smart packaging. 

The rapid growth of digital information in the world necessitates a big leap in improving the existing technologies for magnetic recording. For the best modern perpendicular recording, the highest coercivity materials with minimal volume are required. We present a study of a facile technology for establishing mono- and multilayer surfaces from various single-domain flat magnetic nanoparticles that exhibit a strong perpendicular-oriented magnetic moment on solid and flexible substrates. Surfactant-free, hard ferromagnetic, and single-domain anisotropic strontium hexaferrite SrFe12O19nanoparticles with a perpendicular magnetic moment orientation and two different aspect ratios are self-ordered into magnetic thin nanofilms, exploiting the templating effect of cellulose nanofibrils and magnetic fields. Uniform magnetic coatings obtained by the scalable layer-by-layer spray deposition from a monolayer coverage up to thicknesses of a few tens of nanometers show a preferred in-plane orientation of the hard-magnetic nanoparticles. High coercivities of the films of up to 5 kOe and a high perpendicular anisotropy of Mr⊥/Ms&gt; 80% are found. The application of the magnetic field during film deposition ensures additional improvement in perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and the appearance of residual magnetization in the film of up to 0.6Ms. For low-aspect-ratio nanoparticles stacked in periodic planar structures, the signs of the photonic band gap are revealed. The ability to create scalable, thin magnetic structures based on nanosized particles/building blocks opens great opportunities for their application in a wide variety of optoelectronic and magnetic storage devices.

Coherent X-ray imaging techniques, such as in-line holography, exploit the high brilliance provided by diffraction-limited storage rings to perform imaging sensitive to the electron density through contrast due to the phase shift, rather than conventional attenuation contrast. Thus, coherent X-ray imaging techniques enable high-sensitivity and low-dose imaging, especially for low-atomic-number (Z) chemical elements and materials with similar attenuation contrast. Here, the first implementation of in-line holography at the NanoMAX beamline is presented, which benefits from the exceptional focusing capabilities and the high brilliance provided by MAX IV, the first operational diffractionlimited storage ring up to approximately 300 eV. It is demonstrated that in-line holography at NanoMAX can provide 2D diffraction-limited images, where the achievable resolution is only limited by the 70 nm focal spot at 13 keV X-ray energy. Also, the 3D capabilities of this instrument are demonstrated by performing holotomography on a chalk sample at a mesoscale resolution of around 155 nm. It is foreseen that in-line holography will broaden the spectra of capabilities of MAX IV by providing fast 2D and 3D electron density images from mesoscale down to nanoscale resolution.