Figure 1.

Illustration of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs). (A) Six proteins arranged in rosette complexes in the cell wall of plants synthesize three cellulose chains per protein continuously that assemble into an elementary microfibril (containing 18 cellulose chains). (B) Representative TEM image of CNFs extracted from wood (sample no. 3 in Table 1). The arrows highlight regions of aggregated microfibrils; the scale bar indicates 100 nm. (C) Cross-section distribution of CNFs dependent on the degree of fibrillation (DOF), where lower DOF means that a larger mass fraction of microfibrils are part of cross-sectional aggregates. The model system in this work assumes the microfibrils form aggregates of 2 of 4 unit fibrils. (Illustration (A) was created by Dr. Thomas Splettstößer of SCISTYLE, Berlin.)