Poroelastic mechanical effects of hemicelluloses on cellulosic hydrogels under compression

Hemicelluloses exhibit a range of interactions with cellulose, the mechanical consequences of which in plant cell walls are incompletely understood. We report the mechanical properties of cell wall analogues based on cellulose hydrogels to elucidate the contribution of xyloglucan or arabinoxylan as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-03, Vol.10 (3), p.e0122132-e0122132
Main Authors: Lopez-Sanchez, Patricia, Cersosimo, Julie, Wang, Dongjie, Flanagan, Bernadine, Stokes, Jason R, Gidley, Michael J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biosynthesis
Carbon-13 Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Cell walls
Cellulose
Cellulose - chemistry
Composite materials
Compression
Compressive properties
Compressive Strength
Crystallization
Deformation
Deformation mechanisms
Design
Elastic deformation
Elasticity
Food
Glucans - chemistry
Hemicellulose
Hydrogels
Hydrogels - chemistry
Mechanical properties
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Modulus of elasticity
Nutrition
Polysaccharides - chemistry
Rheological properties
Rheology
Stress, Mechanical
Studies
Viscosity
Xylans - chemistry
Xyloglucan
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Summary:Hemicelluloses exhibit a range of interactions with cellulose, the mechanical consequences of which in plant cell walls are incompletely understood. We report the mechanical properties of cell wall analogues based on cellulose hydrogels to elucidate the contribution of xyloglucan or arabinoxylan as examples of two hemicelluloses displaying different interactions with cellulose. We subjected the hydrogels to mechanical pressures to emulate the compressive stresses experienced by cell walls in planta. Our results revealed that the presence of either hemicellulose increased the resistance to compression at fast strain rates. However, at slow strain rates, only xyloglucan increased composite strength. This behaviour could be explained considering the microstructure and the flow of water through the composites confirming their poroelastic nature. In contrast, small deformation oscillatory rheology showed that only xyloglucan decreased the elastic moduli. These results provide evidence for contrasting roles of different hemicelluloses in plant cell wall mechanics and man-made cellulose-based composite materials.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0122132