Fiber‐Based Biopolymer Processing as a Route toward Sustainability
Abstract
Some of the most abundant biomass on earth is sequestered in fibrous biopolymers like cellulose, chitin, and silk. These types of natural materials offer unique and striking mechanical and functional features that have driven strong interest in their utility for a range of applications, while also matching environmental sustainability needs. However, these material systems are challenging to process in cost‐competitive ways to compete with synthetic plastics due to the limited options for thermal processing. This results in the dominance of solution‐based processing for fibrous biopolymers, which presents challenges for scaling, cost, and consistency in outcomes. However, new opportunities to utilize thermal processing with these types of biopolymers, as well as fibrillation approaches, can drive renewed opportunities to bridge this gap between synthetic plastic processing and fibrous biopolymers, while also holding sustainability goals as critical to long‐term successful outcomes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 13, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1002/adma.202105196
Entities
People
- Chunmei Li
- David L. Kaplan
- Haoyuan Shi
- Jingjie Yeo
- Jugal Kishore Sahoo
- Junqi Wu
- Zhiyu Xia
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Cornell University
- National Institutes of Health
- Tufts University