Cellulose-based Composites: From Tunicates to Timber Professor - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Cellulose-based Composites: From Tunicates to Timber

Professor Steve Eichhorn ACCIS/NCC Conference

21st November 2019

Talk Overview

2

• What is cellulose?
• Where does it come from?
• Natural fibre composites
• Nanocellulose
• Project case studies
• Back to Timber
• Future perspectives

Anselme Payen (1795 – 1871) Died on 13th May, 1871

My History with Cellulose and Aviation

3

Pete Eichhorn – built a VJ23 (Volmer Jensen design) from scratch and flew it for many years Mainly made from wood

Leading edge – poplar plywood Nose ribs – marine grade plywood Wing spar cap strips and tail ribs - spruce

Me

What is cellulose and where from?

4

6CO2 + 6H2O C6H12O6 + 6O2

Chlorophyll The most important equation on the planet!

Trafficking of the cellulose synthase complex in developing xylem vessels Raymond Wightman, Simon Turner Biochemical Society Transactions, 2010, 38 755-760.

Bicton Gardens, April 2018 (Spring!)

Natural Fibres

5

Cotton Flax Jute Hemp Kenaf Bluebell tunicate Wood Nettle (Ramie) Eichhornia crassipes

Natural Fibre Composites

6

Henry Ford and the hemp/Soybean

• il composite

George Washington Carver (1860s – 1943) Mercedes A-200 using flax reinforced panels Hemcrete – hemp fibre lime for insulation materials

Nanocellulose

7

Material Density (g cm-3) Modulus (GPa) Specific modulus (GPa g-1 cm3) Cellulose (crystal) 1.6 137 86 Cellulose (fibril) ~1.5 39-65 ~26-43 Cellulose (fibre)* ~1.5 Flax: 27.6 Jute: 26.5 Ramie: 61.4 – 128(!) ~18-85 Steel 7.8 200 26 Wood (pine) 0.5 9-16 (parallel to grain) 18-32 What if you were able to extract the crystalline properties of cellulose?

Nanocellulose

8

8

H2SO4

Wood Cotton Tunicin Bacterial Cellulose

Native cellulose (microfibrilar) Cellulose Nanocrystals Tunicate cellulose nanocrystals

Nanocellulose Properties

9

1.5% 0%

Intensity (Arbitrary Units) Raman Wavenumber (cm

• 1)

• 2.50
• 2.25
• 2.00
• 1.75
• 1.50
• 1.25
• 1.00
• 0.75
• 0.50
• 0.25

Slope = - 2.4 cm

• 1/%)

R

Raman Band Shift (cm

• 1)

Strain (%)

Modulus of a single nano-whisker of tunicate cellulose is found to be 143 GPa by this

• Calculation. Expected high stiffness – potential exploitation

Sturcova, A., Davies, G.R., Eichhorn, S.J.

• 2005. Biomacromolecules, 6, 1055-1061.

Iwamoto, S.; Kai, W. H.; Isogai, A.; Iwata, T. Biomacromolecules 2009, 10, 2571-2576.

Modulus values of 150.7 ± 28.8 GPa (unmodified) 145.2 ± 31.3 GPa (TEMPO oxidated)

Saito et al. Biomacromolecules 14 (2013) 248−253

Strength values: Wood: 1.6 – 3 GPa; Tunicate : 3 – 6 GPa

Taking Waste from Paper Mill Sludge

10

Cynthia Adu (Cranfield) Chenchen Zhu (Bristol)

Adu, C., Berglund, L., Oksman, K., Eichhorn, S.J., Jolly, M., Zhu, C.

• 2018. Journal of Cleaner Production,

197 765-771.

Cellulose Nanofibre Composites

11

Caterina Palange (Fiberlean/UoB)

200µm

• FiberLean is a form “microfibrillated cellulose”

(MFC) produced by mechanical disintegration of pulp.

• MFC

is formed by interconnected and entangled flexible cellulose fibrils of different length and thickness which forms a complex networked morphology.

• MFC is naturally hydrophilic and incompatible

with polyolefins

Tannic acid (natural extract from plants) Tannic acid modified MFC + resin Polarised light micrograph of Fiberlean Confocal image of PPPE/Fiberlean

EngD within the IDC in Composites Manufacturing

Palange, C., Johns, M.A., Scurr, D.J., Phipps, J.S., Eichhorn, S.J. 2019. Cellulose - in press

The Future – what is sustainable?

12

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to meet their own needs (Bruntland 1987) http://www.uq.edu.au/research/impact/stories/indigenous-opportunity-sprouts-from-desert- discovery/

• Non- renewable
• Renewable
• Replenishable

Oil Coal Natural Gas Timber Plants Wool Water Soil Air

“The fact is that we live in a world that has been profoundly shaped by empire and its disparities. Differentials of power between and within nations are probably greater today than they have ever been. These differentials are, in turn, closely related to carbon

• emissions. The distribution of power in the world lies at

the core of the climate crisis” Ghosh “The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the

• Unthinkable. Chicago, IL. University of Chicago Press.

Solomon Islands Flooding in India

Acknowledgements

13

Many thanks to the EPSRC and Royal Society for funding of the research.

Cynthia Adu (Cranfield) Caterina Palange (Fiberlean/UoB)

Thankyou for listening!

Email.s.j.eichhorn@bristol.ac.uk