Forest can be converted into new environmentally friendly super material
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- The hope of researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology, at the Wallenberg Wood Science Center, is to develop new materials and technologies. Replacing oil with wood in the manufacture of plastics and creating stronger, non-flammable materials are some of the goals. Nanocellulose, which is extracted from wood fiber, has several attractive properties. It is as strong as Kevlar, has a low weight and is entirely renewable.
I'm a material engeeniering student, doing a elective of lingnocelullosic materials and that's a quite interesting techonolgy to develop and study. Nice video!
Using waste wood is fine, but there are grasses/plants that grow much faster that are already high in crystalline cellulose (around 65 to 70%) and by using those, you make the process more efficient.
Also, it's not hard to separate the crystalline cellulose from the soft cellulose and lignin. You just boil water and add sulfuric acid to it. Throw your cellulose in that mix and stir. Some hydrogen peroxide added can help speed it up a bit.
Also, if you graphitize the fibers, they become very highly conductive and is a good material for batteries, super capacitors, and hybrids.
Good day, please may I email you
Do you know how to analyze the amount of cellulose after using an ionic liquid to dissolve the cellulose and further on filtering it with deionized water. Do u know how to analyze the amount of cellulose in that mixture.
@@chloecherchetty837 Analyze for ratio, of crystalline cellulose to non?
Can't say that I do. I'm not part of a University or the like, just an amateur who occasionally likes to experiment or make things.
Btw, earlier, I forgot to mention that when using a source that has a lot of lignin, you have to dissolve that out first before breaking down/dissolving the non crystalline cellulose. I have used "Oxy Clean" and hot water for that part. (Then rinse very well).
Oh, and after some experimentation and reading more research papers, I realized when you use bast fibers, you don't want to use boiling water in combo with the sulfuric acid (just warm), and you need to adjust the ratio of the acid. Around or slightly less than 50% per weight to water seems to be ideal.
@@justinw1765 thank you for your reply so much, basically I'm using sugar cane bagasse, so then I added it to an ionic liquid and placed it in a Parr reactor, this actually dissolved the sugar cane bagasse, sugarcane bagasse when dissolved is only consistent of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, furthermore I then filtered it out with deionized water, doing this removed the cellulose from the mixture , so now I'm just looking for a good method maybe even uv vis to analyze exactly how much of cellulose is in that filtrate.
@@chloecherchetty837 You're welcome.
I see, definitely interesting. I haven't given it any thought previously, so I will think of the issue and if anything comes up, I'll get back to you. Right now I can't think of anything. Using density to volume measurements wouldn't be precise at all if it's mixed together still.
The thing is, if you use the right chemicals and method to begin with, you already know that these will completely breakdown/dissolve the lignin and hemicellulose. That's why most researchers use certain chemicals to begin with.
The crystalline cellulose is MUCH chemically and mechanically tougher/resistant than these. So if you get that part right, you can safely assume that you are left with just the crystalline cellulose. But good on you for looking for an alternative to sulfuric acid though.
However, I use the left over Oxy Clean (mostly sodium percarbonate) water to later neutralize the sulfuric acid, so it's not particularly harmful to anything after. I also try to reuse the acid before neutralizing it.
In any case, best of luck with your research and if I think of anything, I'll come back.
Oh It' awesome!!! How would I contact the research team? I really want to meet them.
Amazing! I would like to meet you people and have a chat!
I am working in extraction of nancellulose. How would I contact the research team?
Pratiksha Shrestha @ we are producing GO based fibers and we want to infuse NFC into GO to make more strong and flexible fibers. Please let me know if you are interested