Pulping and Pretreatment Affect the Characteristics of Bagasse Inks for Three-dimensional Printing

CHINGA-CARRASCO, GARY; EHMAN, NANCI V.; PETTERSSON, JENNIFER; VALLEJOS, MARÍA E.; BRODIN, MALIN W.; FELISSIA, FERNANDO E.; HÅKANSSON, JOAKIM; AREA, MARÍA C.

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

American Chemical Society, ACS

Año: 2018

2168-0485

Bagasse is anunderutilized agro-industrial residue with great potential as raw material forthe production of cellulosenanofibrils (CNF) for a range of applications. Inthis study, we have assessed the suitability of bagasse for production of CNFfor three-dimensional (3D) printing. First, pulp fibers were obtained from thebagasse raw material using two fractionation methods, i.e. soda andhydrothermal treatment combined with soda. Second, the pulp fibers werepretreated by TEMPO-mediated oxidation using two levels of oxidation forcomparison purposes. Finally, the CNF were characterized in detail and assessedas inks for 3D printing. The results show that CNF produced from fibersobtained by hydrothermal and soda pulping were less nanofibrillated than thecorresponding material produced by soda pulping. However, the CNF sampleobtained from soda pulp was cytotoxic, apparently due to a larger content ofsilica particles. All the CNF materials were 3D printable. We conclude that thenoncytotoxic CNF produced from hydrothermally and soda treated pulp canpotentially be used as inks for 3D printing of biomedical devices.