Fig. 5: Proposed organization of the BC-H hydrogels with incorporated wood hemicelluloses.
From: Wood hemicelluloses exert distinct biomechanical contributions to cellulose fibrillar networks
a Molecular interactions between the cellulose microfibrils and the wood hemicelluloses: birch xylan (acGX), spruce glucomannan (acGGM), and spruce xylan (AGX). Here we depict individual xylan and glucomannan polymers that exhibit both regular molecular motifs interacting with the cellulose surfaces in a rigid phase and non-patterned domains in a flexible phase. b Proposed scheme for the architecture of the BC-H fibrillar networks. In the rigid phases, the hemicelluloses attain extended conformations directly interacting with the cellulose surfaces. In the flexible phases, the hemicelluloses may adopt more coiled conformations where they can interact with each other through bridging adhesion of different intensities (stronger for glucomannans, weaker for xylans).The presence of rigid and flexible phases in BC-H hydrogels has been estimated as 50% for each phase, based on the results from 13C CP/MAS NMR analysis.
