Biocomposite materials and related compositions, methods and systems
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsEleftheria Roumeli, Luca Bonanomi, Chiara Daraio, Rodinde Hendrickx
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Abstract
Biocomposites and related fabrication methods and systems are described, the biocomposites comprising compacted plants and/or algae cells having a water content of less than 15 wt %, and a minimized pore presence and/or dimensions, in which the compacted cells are in a lamellar stacked configuration with a plurality of lamellae arranged one above the other, each lamella independently having a thickness of 20 nm to 5 μm and comprising a semi-crystalline structure formed by biopolymers of cell walls of the compacted plant and/or algae cells.
Claims27
A biocomposite material fabrication method, comprising:
- compacting along a plane a cultured biomass comprising cultured plant and/or algae cells from a suspension culture, the cultured plant and/or algae cells having a water content of at least 10 wt %, and a turgor pressure,
- the compacting performed by continuously applying to the cultured biomass an increasing pressure perpendicular to the plane until reaching an applied pressure corresponding to the turgor pressure of the cultured plant and/or algae cells to provide a compacted biomass;
- the method further comprising
- drying the compacted biomass by
- a) applying a drying pressure to the compacted biomass, and/or
- b) applying a drying temperature to the compacted biomass,
- to obtain a biocomposite material having a water content from 0.1 to less than 15 wt %, a mass loss from the cultured biomass of 80-99 wt %, and/or a dry density of 500-1500 kg/m3.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.