Our current situation with an increasing global population and improved living standards demand that we use our available resources more efficiently. In this context, improving the use of sustainable materials while at the same time maintaining or increasing the material functionality is therefore critical. Nanocellulose represents an important class of sustainable biocolloids that has shown great promise for use in e.g. high strength, optically responsive and thermal insulating materials. While the properties of nanocellulose and nanocellulose based materials are impressive, the formation of biological, chemical and physical hybrid materials (i.e. Cellulose Biohybrid Materials) has the potential to significantly improve functionalities and to expand the application space of these materials. In this talk, I will share our recent work on cellulose biohybrid materials and specifically discuss how interfacing nanocellulose with fungi, carbon and conductive nanomaterials (e.g. MXenes and silver nanowires) may lead to embedded functionalities and novel properties for energy storage, tunable electromagnetic absorption, birefringence and sensing.

Cellulose biohybrid materials with embedded energy and sensing functionalities

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.