Steve Eichhorn

Cellulose Nanocomposites: Harnessing Water to Drive Assembly   Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Bristol, UNITED KINGDOM.

Biography

Steve Eichhorn is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Bristol. Prior to this, he was at the University of Exeter, and before then at the University of Manchester. He has an international reputation for his work on cellulose and has published widely on this topic (>150 papers). In 2020 he was awarded the Swinburne Medal from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), the Hayashi Jisuke Prize from the Japanese Cellulose Society in 2017, and the Rosenhain Medal and Prize from the IOM3 in 2012.

Abstract

This talk will cover some recent work at the University of Bristol to use water, in various ways, to drive the assembly of cellulose nanomaterials and composites. The making of self-healing films based on Pickering emulsions will be presented where it will be shown that amphiphilic forms of nanocellulose can form stable systems that are capable of autonomous healing. Other forms of hydrophobically modified celluloses will show that these additional properties, such as the ability to interact directly with thermoplastics are possible. Finally, some issues around the water interactions with cellulose will be addressed, showing that the problem of the redispersion of nanocelluloses when dried can be overcome using simple solvent exchange, and how wood can be made into a flexible structure using a “water shock” treatment.