(601b) Impact of Sulfate Ester Content of Cellulose Nanocrystal on the Crystal Orientation and Its Applicability in Film Packaging

The modern world thrives towards green materials because synthetic materials deal with depleting fossil fuel resources while contributing to global warming, harming aquatic life, creating landfill conditions, and increasing energy consumption. In context to this, materials produced from bio resources could be an essential alternative to the synthetic ones. However, despite various advances in the use of biomaterials, there is a fundamental lack of knowledge about the quantitative relationships between the structural characteristics of biomaterials and their functional properties.

Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) is a biomaterial produced from cellulose which is abundantly present in the earth. The application of such a material in the packaging industry could be advantageous when it is modulated in a way to achieve desirable properties. Typically, self-assembled films of CNC give rise to iridescence which reduces the transparency of the film. Further, having higher structural strength, CNC films become highly brittle in nature which limits their applicability. The overall goal of this project is to overcome these limitations of CNC films producing transparent and flexible films for packaging applications.

We are preparing CNC samples with varied sulfate ester and counter ion contents to systematically evaluate the fundamentals of how initial surface charge and counter ion content affect CNC nanoparticles interactions and self-assembly, and the structural, optical, mechanical, and barrier properties of CNC films. Additionally, we will be optimizing the use of plasticizing agents to improve the flexibility of CNC films for packaging applications.