NEW MATERIALS, OLD SOURCE

More and more interesting findings and research are being presented every day! I will gather my favourite articles from latest research and also a few golden “old” that are now becoming hot new innovations at large forest industry companies such as StoraEnso and BillerudKorsnäs.

I want to start to mention a few interesting updates and webpages about so called nanocellulose, made from wood materials by different treatments, from companies in Sweden/Finland (Stora Enso), Norway (Borregaard/Exilva) and Japan (Nippon Paper Group and Oji Holdings). The concept is easy, liberate a nanocellulose material which is trapped inside the structures of wood cells i.e. the fibres we liberate for paper use. The Nanocellulose is much thinner than visible pulp fibres we make paper of, and at the nanoscale or micro if not the smallest components.

Check out Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) from milder pre-treatments using shear forces and energy to defibrillated from pulp: Exilva and Stora Enso.

In Japan Nippon and Oji Holdings produce Cellulose nanofibers (CNF): Nippon Paper Group and Oji Holdings. The CNF is smaller and made after a more chemical pre-treatment introducing charges inside the pulp fibres.

Another commercially interesting project was the shoe company Asics together with Professor Yano at Kyoto University that developed a new blend of materials including CNFs to be used in the mid sole of a running shoe: Asics running shoe with CNF press release.

Check out the different ways to describe the nanocellulose and what it can be used for! I also recommend to keep updated with the latest from Swedish Research Institute RISE: Nanocellulose research at RISE.

And for those who are more interested, a few open source articles to read including articles from the founder of TEMPO-oxidation of pulp for CNF production, Tsuguyuki Saito and Akira Isogai at Tokyo University. There is also more about the other nanocellulose type which is a shorter more stiff cellulose nanomaterial, referred to as cellulose nanocrystals (CNC or NCC). These are made from acid hydrolysis of woody materials (made commercially famous in Canada by CelluForce, Domtar but Pioneered by Professor Derek Gray at McGill University and recently by Assoc. Professor Emily Cranston at University of British Columbia).

A few great non-open access articles and reviews if you have a chance to pay…

Cellulose Nanofibers Prepared by TEMPO-Mediated Oxidation of Native Cellulose Written by Isogai et al. at University of Tokyo. Pretty much gives you the whole tour and a starting point to CNFs made from TEMPO-oxidation pre-treatment which is a really promising technique to get really nice nanofibers/nanofibrils. Not the first paper nor the last.. but leads you in the right directions. Wonderful images taken by transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Effect of Reaction Conditions on the Properties and Behavior of Wood Cellulose Nanocrystal Suspensions. An article describing as it seems, the properties and behaviour of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from wood materials. Very interesting and a good start from 2005 by Professor Gray. Not his first not his last but a good starting point. One of the most cited articles in the CNC area.

Nanocellulose as a natural source for groundbreaking applications in materials science: Today’s state. A very well written and nicely summarizing review in the field of nanocellulosic materials. Includes Emily Cranston, Dieter Klemm and Tom Lindström in the list of authors. Dieter Klemm has been part of a bulk of the most cited reviews in the nanocellulose field two in Angewandte Chemie (not open access unfortunately…) with over 2500 citations (according to Google Scholar 10 Oct 2019).

Cellulose Nanocrystals: Chemistry, Self-Assembly, and Applications. Another great review with many citations (around 3300 according to google scholar 10 Oct 2019). Written by for example to well known scientists in the field of nanocellulose and modification of such together with hybrid nanocellulose materials, Orlando R. Rojas and Youssef Habibi.

Nanocelluloses: A New Family of Nature‐Based Materials. A review from 2011 that covers some of the basis up to that point. Written by for example Derek Gray and one of the founders of RISE’s own nanocellulose type, which is carboxymethylated cellulose, Tom Lindström.