Cellulose Nanofibre (CNF) - World's Most Advanced Biomass Material.

-

 Since the beginning of human existence, materials have been fundamental to the development of society. Few materials had been so important for the development of society that those eras are named after materials like the Stone Age, Copper Age, Bronze Age, etc as they were in extensive use in those times due to their availability. Nowadays all different types of materials, structural and building materials such as metals, ceramics, and polymers are the most widely used 

Cellulose nanofibers are linear polymer, which exhibits high stiffness and strength (Young's modulus of CNF is up to 130GPa) due to the extensive inter-and intramolecular hydrogen bonds between the molecules. CNF has a diameter of about 3 nm and lengths in the micron-scale showing both crystalline and amorphous sections They are extremely thin fibres. They have a very unique type of viscosity, to be transparent, lightweight, and strong durable, and to change very little in shape due to temperature variations. Cellulose nanofiber is the world's most advanced biomass material. As the material is derived from plant fibers, it creates a low environmental impact on its production and disposal. It has few outstanding characteristics, it is lightweight, has an elastic modulus comparable to that of high-strength aramid fiber, exhibits thermal expansion as low as glass, and presents high barrier properties with respect to oxygen and other gases. Low thermal expansion coefficient is a very important property for materials in many application areas, especially for aerospace and space craft building applications. The high mechanical and structural properties that nanocellulose induces to composites are related to the rigid network of nanocrystals in which the tension transfer is facilitated by hydrogen bonds between the nanoparticles and are also due to the morphology of the crystals that present a high aspect ratio, in particular, when they are obtained in the form of nanowhiskers. Due to its morphology and characteristic physical properties, cellulose nanofiber is seen as a promising material for use in a variety of industrial uses like filter material high gas barrier packaging material, electronic devices, foods, medicine, paints, cosmetics, CNFs as a new environmentally friendly material will be widely used in many areas such as reinforcement of polymers, energy production and its storage, protection of environment and healthcare. 

The production of Cellulose nanofibres (CNF) is now happening at industrial scale, with numerous large paper manufacturers establishing multi-ton facilities for increasing the production. Japanese chemicals and paper  manufacturers have also initiated cellulose nanofiber production facilities. Facilities have also been established in the Scandinavian part of Europe, Canada, and the United States. Japan is now the highest producer as well as the consumer of the CNF. There are many companies in Japan producing CNFs, here is a list of them -

Asahi KaseiC 

DaicelCorporation

ChuetsuPulp & PaperD

Daio Paper Corporation

DIC Corporation

Nippon Paper Industries

Seiko PMC

Sugino Machine.

Marusumi Paper Co,.Ltd

 One such Japanese manufacturer is Marusumi Paper Co., Ltd. They have been using it to produce paints materials, cosmetics, optical sheets, gel (of different viscosity), automobile composites, etc. The CNFs which they produce have a light transmittance of 99.4% (which shows how transparent the material is) and a haze value of 2.3%. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Are We Living In a Space Opera Universe?

-
Image
We humans are always excited to learn about planets, galaxies, stars, asteroids, and what’s there deep in space. This urge for exploration has led us to execute many successful space missions. These all have become possible due to technical advancements but the people had already imagined some stories and concepts set in space and those narratives are space operas. Let's look into our space opera universe which is made up of trillions of superclusters in which there is a tiny cluster called VIRGO supercluster, and a supercluster is made up of trillions of clusters among which there is a small cluster called  VIRGO cluster, a cluster is made up of several galaxies in which there is a galaxy called MILKY WAY, a galaxy is made up of several solar systems of which there is our solar system which has eight planets and a star called the sun, amongst these eight planets there our planet called EARTH where we are living. Millions of years ago, our universe took birth. From birth to now, it
Read more

Solid State Batteries - The Future of Energy Storage.

-
Image
Solid-state battery technology uses solid electrodes and electrolytes instead of liquid or polymer gel electrolytes which are found in lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries. Using the solid electrolyte,these batteries produce some solid performance gains over the lithium ion and lithium polymer batteries.  Firstly, a solid can be more stable than a liquid in the batteries. Thus solid-state batteries can operate at much higher temperatures. Therefore we can pump a lot more power into it while charging, decreasing its charging time. Whereas a lithium-ion or polymer battery is highly flammable because of which many times the mobile phones have blasted causing severe injuries and even death. You might have seen the power rating of your mobile charger and wonder why can't we increase it and charge it faster, it's due to its flammable property. Solid-state batteries are going to end this issue.  In lithium ion or polymer batteries , over time solid structure called dentrites are f
Read more

What is Gravity?

-
Image
  So what exactly is gravity? We define gravity in many ways, including stating that it's a "force" in the universe exhumed by massive objects but  Albert Einstein defined gravity as - it was a "consequence" of the bending of spacetime. I'm sure you have your own ways to describe what it is and what it isn't, but the technical definition is that it is: "a natural phenomenon by which all the matters with mass or energy including planets, stars, galaxies, and even light (it is a form of energy) are brought toward (or gravitate toward) one another." To put it in your perspective, every object, even you and I, have our own personal gravity field. The problem is that while we do exert our own gravity, it pales in comparison to what the Earth's is. Thus, when two people stand next to each other, the lighter person doesn't get pulled directly into the other person, because Earth's gravity overrides that. The Earth as a whole has such a str
Read more