Multimodal structural humidity-response of cellulose nanofibril foams derived from wood and upcycled cotton textiles

We have produced foams from cellulose nanofibrils from upcycled cotton (upCNF) and wood (wCNF) through unidirectional (UIT) and multidirectional ice-templating (MIT) and investigated the structural humidity response through in-situ WAXS, SAXS, and micro tomography (μCT) between 10 and 95 % relative humidity (RH). The upCNF and wCNF WAXS patterns displayed a shape- and position shift as the RH was increased, with a compression in the (200) direction and an elongation in the (004) direction. The average separation distance extracted from the 1D SAXS patterns revealed no significant change for the upCNF foams regardless of RH and processing route, while a significant increase was observed for the wCNF foams. The μCT measurements of the upCNF foams showed a slight shift in macropore distribution towards larger pores between 50 and 80 % RH which can be attributed to the weakening and partial disintegration of the pore wall as more moisture is introduced. The humidity-induced structural alterations of the upCNF foam were significantly lower compared to the wCNF foams, confirming our claim of upCNF being more moisture resistant than wCNF foams.