Cellulosic gels, films and composites including the gels, and methods of forming same
OwnerIvan I. Smalyukh, Andrew Johnston Hess +6inventors
InventorsIvan I. Smalyukh, Andrew Johnston Hess, Quingkun Liu, Joshua A. De La Cruz, Blaise Fleury, Eldho Abraham, Bohdan Senyuk, Vladyslav Cherpak
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Abstract
Disclosed are cellulose-based 5 flexible aerogels and xerogels containing bacterial cellulose nanorods, ribbons, fibers, and the like, wherein the gels have tunable optical, heat transfer, and stiffness properties. Further disclosed are highly transparent and flexible cellulose nanofiber-polysiloxane composite aerogels featuring enhanced mechanical robustness, tunable optical anisotropy, and low thermal conductivity.
Claims9
A process for preparing networked cellulosic aerogels, the process comprising the steps of:
- a) contacting a dispersion of bacterial cellulose with an oxidizing system that oxidizes hydroxyl units of cellulose to carboxylate and/or carboxylic acid units to form a solution of oxidized cellulose nanofibers;
- b) reacting the oxidized cellulose nanofibers with a surface modifying agent to form a solution of surface modified cellulose nanofibers;
- c) contacting the surface modified cellulose nanofibers with a crosslinking agent to form a bacterial cellulose nanofiber matrix;
- d) hydrolyzing the matrix in the presence of a catalyst to form networked cellulosic hydrogel;
- e) exchanging solvent contained in the hydrogel with a solvent to form an organogel;
- and
- f) removing the solvent to form an aerogel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.