Technology News

TL;DR: Researchers have developed the strongest bio-based material, which is stronger than wood, spider silk, ceramics, and metallic alloys.

Abstract: 521 © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd | Biofuels, Bioprod. Bioref. 12:521 (2018); DOI: 10.1002/bbb at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has managed to produce a material with perfectly aligned nanofibrils. To do this, they milled a central 1 mm-wide channel into a steel plate, and two sets of channels connected at right angles to either side of the central channel at two different points along its length. They then flowed a solution of cellulose nanofibrils along the central channel, while sending a flow of water along the first set of channels and a flow of dilute acid along the second set. Initially, the nanofibrils in the flow are at random orientations, due to Brownian motion and the surface By finding a way to perfectly align cellulose nanofibrils, a team of Swedish and US researchers has developed the strongest ever bio-based material.1 Not only is this material stronger than wood and spider silk, but it’s also stronger than ceramics and metallic alloys such as steel. Individual cellulose nanofibrils are known to be very stiff and strong, but that strength is not transferred when the nanofibrils are combined into larger materials, because various defects tend to be introduced at larger scales. One of the most important of these defects is misalignment of the nanofibrils, but now a team led by Daniel Söderberg BIOFUELS