Recent Developments in Nanocellulose-Based Aerogels in Thermal Applications: A Review

Abstract

Naturally derived nanocellulose (NC) is a renewable, biodegradable nanomaterial with high strength, low density, high surface area, and tunable surface chemistry, which allows its interaction with other polymers and nanomaterials in a controlled manner. In recent years, NC aerogel has gathered a lot of attention due to environmental concerns. This review presents recent developments of NC-based aerogels and their controlled interactions with other polymers and nanomaterials for thermal applications that include electronic devices, the apparel industry, superinsulating materials, and flame-retardant smart building materials. After going through the distinctive properties of NC aerogels, they are orderly categorized and discussed as thermally insulated, thermally conductive, and flame-retardant materials.

Nanocellulose Length Determines the Differential Cytotoxic Effects and Inflammatory Responses in Macrophages and Hepatocytes

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] In light of its various and outstanding advantages including high mechanical strength, stiffness, low weight, high specific surface area, recyclability, bioavailability, biocompatibility, surface tunable chemistry, and rheological properties, nanocellulose has been increasingly considered for applications in papermaking, coatings, food, nanocomposite formulations and reinforcement, as well as in the innovative biomedical fields, including used as drug delivery carriers, 3D culture, antimicrobial materials, and tissue repair and regeneration areas. [2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The nanocellulose production has a high economic impact and the global nanocellulose market will be projected to grow to approximately $730 million by 2023. [11] This stresses the importance of understanding the toxicity of nanocellulose to generate knowledge that will contribute to predict the health effects from exposure, reduce the risk to humans, or design safer nanocellulose materials for biomedical applications.Although nanocellulose is generally regarded as safe based on its biocompatibility as well as biodegradability and the great majority of studies have pointed to the absence of significant cytotoxic effects by a vast diversity of CNC samples from different origins and with diverse properties in many mammalian cell lines, recent studies have been reported that nanocellulose displayed the adverse effects in vitro and in vivo.…”

Surfactant-free cellulose filaments stabilized oil in water emulsions

“…Aerogels are the least dense solid materials with a porosity of around 99%, which can be further used in thermal insulation, energy storage devices, biomedical scaffolds, flame retardancy, etc. (Ahankari et al 2021) Recently, CNF oil-in-water emulsions has been applied to develop strong aerogel simply by freeze-drying of the emulsions and used as thermal superinsulation material (Jime ´nez-Saelices et al 2018). On the other hand, the application of CNF based emulsion in 3D printing has been recently investigated (Huan et al 2019).…”

Preparation and Comparative Study of Aerogels Based on Cellulose Nanocrystals and Nanofibers from Eucalyptus Pulp

“…Cellulose nanomaterials exhibit attractive properties, such as light-weight, high surface area, good mechanical strength, hydrophilicity, and available surface modi cations (Klemm et al 2011;Thomas et al 2018). Owing to their excellent properties, cellulose nanomaterials have been used in various applications, such as food packaging, sensors, energy storage systems, environmental puri cation, and industrial materials (Kwon et Nanocellulose, a natural polymer, has been applied for synthesis of aerogel, and it exhibits the characteristics of both traditional aerogels and cellulose, such as renewability, ultralight weight, biodegradability, low cost, and non-toxicity (Wan et al 2019;Ahankari et al 2021). Consequently, nanocellulose-based aerogels have emerged as the third-generation aerogel materials after inorganic and organic polymer aerogels.…”