Oct 17 2006
Researchers at theSUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF)are developing ways to use cellulose from wood to strengthen plastics, providing a lightweight component that has the added advantage of being biodegradable.
The key is pulling nanocrystals of cellulose out of natural materials, ranging from trees and willow shrubs to orange pulp and the pomace left behind after apple cider production, and mixing them with plastics.
ESF的化学教授兼主任William T. Winter博士说：“通过将一盎司的晶体添加到一磅的塑料中，您可以将塑料的强度增加3,000倍。”“最后，在垃圾填埋场中，它只是二氧化碳和水，可以将其占用并制成更多的生物质。”
The process provides another use for the one billion tons of biomass that can be produced annually in the United State, according to an estimate from the U.S. departments of energy and agriculture. The term “biomass” refers to any biologically derived material.
“All plant materials contain a minimum of 25 percent cellulose,” Winter said. “Wood from trees is a little higher, between 40 percent and 50 percent.”
除了用作塑料的增强剂外，纳米晶体还可以用于陶瓷和生物医学应用中，例如人造关节和一次性医疗设备。2020欧洲杯下注官网使用纤维素纳米晶体增强塑料的优势比通常使用的玻璃具有优势：玻璃更重，更难处理机械，因此使用更昂贵，并且它在地面上保持了几个世纪。纤维素纳米晶体将在垃圾填埋场中迅速分解。
“Anything which is made in nature can be destroyed in nature,” Winter said. “And these cellulose particles have a lifetime in a landfill of less than 90 days, at which time, they go back into carbon dioxide and water. It can be reabsorbed by other plants that use it to make more cellulose.”
Winter and his team work with a reactor that can process up to 500 grams (about a pound) of material at a time, a significant increase over the 5-gram quantities that are typically used in laboratory settings. The next step is to scale it up to a commercial level.
在冬季的过程中，纤维素首先在实验室中纯化，因为从生物质中除去了蜡和粘性木质素等物质。然后，纤维素经过类似于乳制品的均质过程。在高压下将纤维素切成小颗粒，使纳米晶体构成，因为它们是如此微小，因此以纳米欧洲杯猜球平台或十亿分之一的仪表进行测量。
结果是一种粘稠的白色液体，该液体进入微型化合剂，在高压下与塑料混合。该装置会产生绳索或色带，具体取决于用来塑造它的模具的晶体增强塑料，该塑料可以测试几种特性。
Winter的团队目前正在努力完善晶体的表面，以使它们更好地粘附在塑料上，并在整个材料中均付出了最佳效果。
In the future, Winter said, the process could be tied to the production of cellulosic ethanol. When hemicellulose is removed from wood for fermentation into ethanol, it leaves behind cellulose that can be treated with enzymes and reduced to the nanocrystals Winter uses in his lab. The value of those crystals in industrial uses represents a significant reduction in the cost of producing ethanol.
And Winter sees possibilities in using the nanocrystals in the bioplastics that are being developed at SUNY-ESF, resulting in strong, lightweight plastics that would degrade in a landfill.
Winter has received more than $1 million in support for the research, mostly from federal sources such as the departments of agriculture and energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Other funding has come from Eastman Chemical Company.
Winter is assisted in the research by graduate students Jacob Goodrich and Yae Takahashi.
http://www.esf.edu/