Microstructures and mechanical properties of fiber cells from Echinocactus grusonii cactus spine  

作　　者：HUANG FengLing QIU Hu GUO WanLin 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory for mechanics and control of mechanical structures, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of the Ministry of Education and Institute of Nanoscience, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics [2]Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Automation Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

出　　处：《Science China(Technological Sciences)》2014年第4期706-712,共7页中国科学（技术科学英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China("973"program)(Grant Nos.2013CB932604,2012CB933403);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.91023026);the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(Grant NosNP2013309,NS2012043);Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Research Funds(Grant No.1302015B);the NUAA Research Initiative for New Stuff(Grant No.1011-YAH13042)

摘　　要：Spine is the sharpest and hardest part of many plants, which contains highly aligned fiber cells. Here, we report the micro- structures and mechanical properties as well as their correlation of single spine fiber cells （SFCs） from the cactus Echinocactus grusonii. It is found that the SFCs are 0.32-0.57 mm in length and 4.6-6.0 gm in width, yielding an aspect ratio of 53-124. X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry show that the spine fiber is mainly made up of cellulose I with a crystallinity index up to -76%. Nanoindentation tests show that a natural spine presents a high modulus of -17 GPa. Removing hemicellulose and lignin from the SFC significantly reduces its modulus to -0.487 GPa, demonstrating the critical role of adhesives hemicellulose and lignin in affecting the mechanical properties of the SFCs. This finding sheds light on de- signing novel bio-inspired high-performance composite nanomaterials with aligned nanofibers, such as using hemicellulose and lignin as adhesive in making carbon nanotube fibers.

关 键 词：SPINE fibers MICROSTRUCTURE indentation modulus 

分 类 号：Q811[生物学—生物工程]