Relationship between processing history and functionality recovery after rehydration of dried cellulose-based suspensions: A critical review

Cellulose-based suspensions have raised more and more attention due to their broad range of properties that can be used in paper industry and material science but also in medicine, nanotechnology and food science. Their final functionality is largely dependent on their processing history and notably the structural modifications that occur during drying and rehydration. The purpose of this work is to make a state-of-the-art contribution to the mechanisms involved in the process-structure-function relationships of cellulose-based hydrogels. The different assumptions that exist in the literature are reviewed taking the key role of the initial sample characteristics as well as the processing conditions into consideration. The decrease in swelling ability after drying is clearly due to an overall shrinkage of the structure of the material. At microscale, pore closure and cellulosic fibril aggregation are mentioned as the main reasons. The origins of such irreversible structural modifications take place at molecular level and is mainly explained by the establishment of a new balance of interactions between all components. Nevertheless, the respective contribution of each interaction are still under investigation. [Display omitted] •Water retention ability of cellulose-based suspensions is a key feature for various applications.•Structural changes due to drying often limit the optimal rehydration of cellulose-rich materials.•The complex dynamic, multiscale and interdependent mechanisms makes this topic challenging.•The several assumptions that exist in literature to explain structural collapse are reviewed.