High-strength cellulose fibres enabled by molecular packing

Developing high-performance bio-based fibres is highly desirable for improving the sustainability of materials. Cellulose is one of the most abundant bio-derived feedstocks to fabricate such materials. However, the fabrication of high-strength macro cellulose fibres is challenging due to the difficulty in obtaining ordered packing of cellulose molecular chains and nanocrystals in the macro-fibres. Here we develop a draw spinning/de-acetylation method to prepare cellulose fibres with highly ordered molecular packing that incorporates high strength in the obtained fibres. Specifically, a fibre draw spun from well-dispersed cellulose triacetate solution was de-acetylated to generate cellulose fibres, which were then twisted to spirally align the molecular chains. The resulting fibres exhibited mechanical strength of 3.08 GPa and toughness of 215.1 MJ m−3, much higher than existing fibre materials. This work paves the way to obtaining high-performance bio-based fibres. Fabricating high-performance cellulose fibres is desirable for the development of sustainable materials, but remains challenging. Here the authors report a draw spinning/de-acetylation method to fabricate cellulose fibres that exhibit mechanical strength exceeding that of existing fibre materials.