Title
Nature of dielectric relaxation in microcrystalline cellulose
Authors
OLEXANDER M. ALEKSEEV KOSTIANTYN M. KOVALOV MAXIM M. LAZARENKO MYKHAILO V. LAZARENKO YURII E. GRABOVSKII and SERGII YU. TKACHOV

Received February 12, 2018
Published Volume 53 Issue 1-2 January-February
Keywords microcrystalline cellulose, X-ray diffraction analysis, dielectric spectroscopy, dipole motion

Abstract
This article is devoted to the investigation of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). X-ray diffraction analysis allowed estimating the radius of microcrystalline cellulose particles (whiskers), while the dielectric spectroscopy method gave an insight into the mean-square change of the dipole moment per unit volume and the concentration of relaxers as a result. The moisture content of the MCC samples was estimated using thermogravimetric analysis. According to the experimentally obtained data, we propose a model to describe the dipole relaxation in MCC as being caused by reorientation of hydroxymethyl groups only on the surface of a microcrystalline cellulose particle.