Fractal Structure of Microcrystalline Cellulose Obtained by Method of Spray Drying-Juniper Publishers
JUNIPER PUBLISHERS- ACADEMIC JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE Abstract In this research, a fractal structure of beads of different sizes obtained by spray-drying of aqueous dispersions of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was studied. These beads are formed as a result of aggregation of rod-shaped cellulose nanocrystalline particles (CNP). It was found that increasing the average radius (R) of the formed MCC beads results in increased porosity (P) and reduced density (ρ). The dependences of P and ρ on scale factor (R/r) can be expressed by power-law equations: p=(R/r) k-dp and p-d (R/r) DP-K ,where the fractal dimensions PD= 2.887 andPD=2.986 are close to Euclidean dimension E=3 for three-dimensional space; r=3nm is radius of cellulose nanocrystalline particles, Po = 0.03cm3/g is porosity and d=1.585g/cm3 is true density (specific gravity) of CNP, respectively. Thus, with the increase in the size of formed MCC beads, the order in the packing of the beads is distorted...