Titre: New Materials Chemistry from Cellulose Nanocrystals
Endroit: Pavillion P. J. Bombardier, salle 1035
Hôte: Wust James D.
Résumé: Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) extracted from biomass, including cotton and wood pulp, form stable colloidal suspensions in water and also organize into a chiral nematic liquid crystal when concentrated in water. This chiral nematic organization is retainedin dried films of CNCs, giving films with bright, iridescent colors.[1]Our group has been active in using CNCs as a template to construct novel chiral nematic mesoporous materials with photonic properties.[2] We have succeeded in preparing silica,[3]organosilica,[4] and polymeric materials[5] through self-assembly or templating methods.In this presentation, I will discuss our some of our recent explorations with CNCs, including hydrogels (Fig. 1) and aerogels,[6] tactoids,[7,8]or elastomers with tunable optical properties.