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Research
Nanocomposite Manufacturing
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Cellulose nanocrystals extracted from different biomass resources have great potential as a reinforcing agent in nanocomposite materials owing to the excellent mechanical properties and environmental sustainability. The superior properties of cellulose nanocrystals in a different polymer matrix is stifled by the non-uniform dispersion through the polymer matrix. The main approaches for the production of cellulose nanocrystals materials are improving the dispersion quality of cellulose nanocrystals in a polymer matrix with different levels of hydrophilicity.
The application of time-efficient mechanical processing in solving the lack of uniform dispersion of cellulose nanocrystals in polymer matrices is of great interest. It was reported that the application of masterbatch approach can enhance the dispersion quality of cellulose nanocrystals in host polymer. The time-intensive film casting is the most commonly used technique in preparing masterbatches. However, the long-time drying process in the film casting process favored the formation of micro-sized CNC aggregates through a polymer matrix.
Our group introduced the spin-coating method for the first time for fabricating highly concentrated masterbatches. The short drying time in spin-coating deposition technique hindered the formation of cellulose nanocrystal aggregates in the polymer matrix.
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Barrier Property of Biopolymers
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Food packaging comprises 55- 65% of the $130 billion value of packaging in the United States, and waste-disposal problems associated with synthetic plastics are considered as an environmental challenge. The comprehensive study on the application of recent-emerging biomaterials in strengthening biopolymers and illuminating their most common limitations such as low barrier properties for potential applications in food packaging is an important field of research in diminishing the petroleum-based polymer usage. The successful implementation of the spin-coating method in masterbatch preparation technique has led us to propose a new method on development of thin films with the thickness of the order of micrometers via spin-coating and solvent casting methods with the potential application in the food packaging industry.
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Cellulose Nanocrystal Hydrogels
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Hydrogels are hydrophilic cross-linked polymer networks formed via the simple reaction of one or more monomers with the ability to retain a significant extent of water. Owing to an increased demand for environmentally friendly, biodegradable, and biocompatible products, cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) with high hydrophilicity have emerged as a promising sustainable material for the formation of hydrogels. The cytocompatibility, swellability, and non-toxicity make CNC hydrogels of great interest in biomedical, biosensing, and wastewater treatment applications. There has been considerable progress in the research of CNC hydrogels, as the number of scientific publications has exponentially increased (>600%) in the last five years. In our group, we are working on multi-component nanocomposite hydrogels with tunable physical and mechanical properties for different applications in tissue engineering and oil/water separation
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