Dr Joseph Jakes, materials engineer at the Forest Produsts Lab in Madison, Wisconsin, has been given a special US presidential award for his work on nanocelluose (from the July 30, 2012 news item by Rich Christianson on the Woordworking Network,
Research to improve wood adhesives through the use of nanotechnology earned Dr. Joseph Jakes a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
…
Jakes is author of Developing Tools to Assess Mechanical Properties of Wood Cell Walls. Jakes’ scientific paper notes,”Nanoindentation is a tool capable of probing mechanical properties at the sub-micrometer level, such as in wood cell walls, individual components in a wood-based composite, coatings, adhesive bond lines, etc.” Using this tool, Jakes writes, will help develop “advanced wood-based nanocomposites and to better understand wood-adhesive interactions.”
While there is mention of nanocellulose elsewhere in the news item, no details about its form(s), e.g. nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), are given.
Apparently, they produce both cellulose whiskers and cellulose nanofibrils:
http://umaine.edu/pdc/in-the-news/fpl-nanocellulose-facility-grand-opening/
Hi Karen! Thank you for the info. I hadn’t seen cellulose whiskers before. As for the cellulose nano-crystals (CNC), they sound remarkably similar to nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). Perhaps, identical twins? Cheers, Maryse
Hi Maryse!
From my understanding, nanocrystaline cellulose (NCC), cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), cellulose whiskers (CW) and cellulose nanowhiskers (CNW) are all the same stuff: cylindrical rods of crystalline cellulose (diameter: 5-10 nm; length: 20-1000 nm). Cellulose nanofibers or nanofibrils (CNF), on the contrary, are less crystalline and are in the form of long fibers (diameter: 20-50 nm; length: up to several micrometers).
There is still a lot of confusion on the nomenclature of cellulose nanoparticles, but nice explanations (and pictures!) are given here (and also in other papers from the same conference):
http://www.tappi.org/Downloads/Conference-Papers/2012/12NANO/12NANO49.aspx
Hope this helps!
PS: Thank you for your good work on your blog. It is always very informative!
Hi Karen! Thanks so much for the clarifications and link to the TAPPI presentation by Bouchard. I haven’t words for how much this helps especially since, having worked in both libraries and archives, I have a particular interest in nomenclature and classification schemes. And, I deeply appreciate the kinds words about the blog as posting here can be a lonely pursuit. Cheers, Maryse
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