Dr. Robert Moon, an engineer with the Forest Products Laboratory and affiliate with the Renewable Bioproducts Institute, said there is a new family of cellulose-based particles with new functionality and performance being developed to further expand the use of renewable materials in the ever-widening consumer products base.

Moon addressed a group of faculty and students in April with a lecture entitled “Cellulose Nanomaterials: Plant-based Nanoparticles Growing a Sustainable Future.” The event was sponsored by the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology.

In his abstract, Moon points out that cellulose based materials (wood, cotton, etc.) have been used by our society as engineering materials for thousands of years and their use continues today as verified by the enormity of the world wide industries in forest products, paper, textiles, packaging, etc.  But today, this new family of particles has a unique combination of characteristics: high mechanical properties, low coefficient of thermal expansion, high aspect ratio, and low density.  The exposed –OH side groups on CN surfaces can be readily modified to achieve different surface properties, and have been used to adjust CN self-assembly and dispersion within a wide range of suspensions and matrix polymers, and to control interfacial properties in composites (e.g. CN-CN and CN-matrix).  Also, CNs can potentially be produced at industrial size quantities and at low costs, and preliminary tests have shown low environmental, health and safety issues. 

According to Moon, research in CNs has grown rapidly in the last few years in an ever growing application space, including but not limited to: reinforcing fillers for polymers, cements, fibers, transparent films, flexible transparent displays, biomedical implants, drug delivery, barrier films, separation membranes, batteries, supercapacitors, sensors, etc.

To hear Dr. Moon’s lecture in its entirety, click here.

Bio:Dr. Robert J. Moon is a Materials Research Engineer at the USDA Forest Service - Forest Products Laboratory, and is an Adjunct Professor in both the School of Materials Science and Engineering (at GaTech), and in the School of Materials Engineering (at Purdue University).

Dr. Moon’s publication record can be found at: Google scholar: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FD8YFDkAAAAJ&hl=en ResearchGate:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Moon