Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/M012247/1
Title:	Cellulose "nanopaper" as building blocks for sustainable materials
Principal Investigator:	Lee, Professor K
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Lulea University of Technology VTT
Department:	Aeronautics
Organisation:	Imperial College London
Scheme:	First Grant - Revised 2009
Starts:	26 January 2015	Ends:	25 January 2017	Value (£):	96,865
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Manufacturing Machine & Plant Materials Processing
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Manufacturing Energy
Related Grants:
Panel History:	Panel Date Panel Name Outcome 20 Aug 2014 Engineering Prioritisation Panel Meeting 20 August 2014 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Increasing energy cost, heavy legislative pressures, consumer's demand for environmental friendlier products, carbon neutral technologies and a sustainable future have all triggered fresh interest in research and development of green(er) materials. In this context, cellulose nanofibres are regarded as the prime candidate for the production of high performance sustainable composites. However, the high tensile stiffness (up to 160 GPa) and strength (at least 1 GPa) of a single cellulose nanofibre has yet to be fully exploited in composite materials. Numerous researchers have already manufactured bacterial cellulose (BC)- or nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)-reinforced polymer composites. Whilst these studies showed the ability of nanocellulose to improve the mechanical performance of polymer matrices, many of these nanocomposites still performed worse than or only equally well compared to PLA, which is one of the highest performing bio-derived polymers that is commercially available at a reasonable price. This proposed project aims to develop the next generation of nanocellulose-reinforced polymers applying green engineering principles to reduce the use of solvents and energy, as well as introduce simple manufacturing concepts to produce sustainable nanocomposites that are truly high performance for high volume structural applications. To achieve this, this project will concentrate on the use of: (i) ultra-low grammage or (ii) high performance cellulose "nanopapers" as the building blocks for sustainable composite materials. It can be anticipated that such truly green and high performance nanofibre composites will find wider applications for instance in the composite, plastic electronics and flexible display industries.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Further Information:
Organisation Website:	http://www.imperial.ac.uk