Nano-cellulose is the most abundant biomass resource on earth. It has the advantages of easily degradable, renewable, non-toxic, cheap and easy to obtain. It is expected to replace traditional petrochemical resources and be used to produce various high value-added advanced functional materials. According to the preparation method and source of nanocellulose, nanocellulose can generally be divided into three categories: cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), cellulose nanofiber (CNF) and bacterial cellulose (BC).

Nano-cellulose functional materials used in chiral photonics

Chirality is ubiquitous in nature and plays an important role in life sciences and material sciences. CNC is a nanoscale chiral photonic crystal material. The chiral nematic liquid crystal phase structure of CNC can be used to prepare functional film materials with high mechanical properties and special optical properties, and it can also be used as a soft template to induce nanoparticles to form functional materials with chiral structures. Therefore, it has important application value in the fields of chiral catalysis, chiral metamaterials, polarization encryption, and biosensing.

Nano cellulose functional material for software driver

In recent years, based on various synthetic polymer-derived soft material materials, such as typical hydrogels, liquid crystal elastomers and shape memory polymers, scientists have cleverly designed a variety of bionic smart actuators to imitate or even surpass the biological Drive behavior. However, these traditional polymer-based materials are usually synthesized through complex processes, are costly, and are difficult to degrade or recycle, which may bring a certain burden to the environment. It is worth noting that the biomimetic software actuators based on nanocellulose have received more and more attention due to their superior mechanical flexibility, high moisture absorption capacity, sustainability or eco-friendliness, reusability or biodegradability and biocompatibility. More attention and attention.

Figure 3. Application of nanocellulose-based functional materials in the field of software drives

Nano-cellulose functional materials for energy storage

Because of its large specific surface area, excellent mechanical flexibility, good chemical stability and environmental friendliness, as well as the interlocking connection between the fibers, nanocellulose is easy to form a porous structure that facilitates the transmission of ions and electrons; the surface of the fibers is attached with hydroxyl groups, carboxyl groups, etc. Hydrophilic functional groups have good moisturizing ability in the electrolyte solution, which makes the derived functional materials have a wide range of application prospects in the field of energy storage. Nano-cellulose-based functional materials can not only be used as various components in energy storage devices, such as separators, electrolytes, adhesives and carriers. At the same time, through high-temperature carbonization, in-situ chemical polymerization and electrochemical deposition, it can be combined with electroactive materials to obtain finer nanostructures and excellent electrochemical performance.

Nano-cellulose functional materials used in biomedicine

In the dry state, the mechanical properties of nanocellulose are comparable to human bones, while in the wet state, the physical and chemical properties of nanocellulose are similar to those of extracellular matrix. At the same time, in addition to excellent physical and chemical properties, nanocellulose has high compatibility with other polymers or functional materials, so that nanocellulose-based functional materials have good practical value and broad application prospects in the biomedical field.