Nanocellulose from wood represents an important class of sustainable biocolloids with great promise for use in high performance nanomaterials due to its high specific strength and stiffness, chemical resilience and self-organizing behavior. Optimal use of nanocellulose in new materials, however, requires control of both the individual particle structure as well as how the particles are assembled over several length scales. Our fundamental work in this area is dedicated to an understanding of the single particle structure and properties, and how this structural knowledge can be used to understand and predict the controlled formation of higher order structures that ultimately lead to materials with optimized functionality. We use high-resolution microscopy to elucidate the physical properties of nanocellulose particles, follow their liquid crystal assembly in the light microscope, use physical scaling arguments to understand the different phases that are formed and combine this knowledge with external structuring techniques to form functional nanocellulose materials. In this contribution, I will describe our multiscale research approach and give a few example of how it can be used to produce functional materials in the form of active foams, hierarchically structured gels and biohybrid materials.

Nanocellulose: From single particle structure to multiscale assembly of functional materials

2019 Spring National Meeting

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