Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials, Complutense University of Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Departamento de Bioingeniería e Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Leganés, Spain.
Carbohydr Polym. 2021 Feb 15;254:117271. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.117271. Epub 2020 Oct 23.
Dispersion of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) is of utmost importance to guarantee their reliable application. Nevertheless, there is still no consensual method to characterize CNC aggregation. The hypothesis of this paper is that dispersion could be quantified through the classification of aggregates detected in transmission electron microscopy images. k-Means was used to classify image particulate elements of five CNC samples into groups according to their geometric features. Particles were classified into five groups according to their maximum Feret diameter, elongation, circularity and area. Two groups encompassed the most application-critical aggregates: one integrated aggregates of high complexity and low compactness while the other included elongated aggregates. In addition, the characterization of CNC dispersion after different levels of sonication was achieved by assessing the change in the number of elements belonging to each cluster after sonication. This approach could be used as a standard for the characterization of the aggregation state of CNCs.
纤维素纳米晶体(CNC)的分散性对于保证其可靠应用至关重要。然而,目前仍然没有一种公认的方法来表征 CNC 的聚集状态。本文的假设是,通过对透射电子显微镜图像中检测到的聚集体进行分类,可以对分散性进行定量描述。使用 k-均值方法,根据五个 CNC 样品的颗粒的几何特征,将图像颗粒元素分类成组。根据最大 Feret 直径、伸长率、圆度和面积,将颗粒分类成五组。其中两组包含了最关键的应用聚集物:一组是高复杂性和低紧凑性的聚集物,另一组则是细长的聚集物。此外,通过评估超声处理后每个聚类中元素数量的变化,实现了对不同超声处理水平下 CNC 分散性的表征。这种方法可以作为表征 CNC 聚集状态的标准。