Projects
Printed Paper Batteries
We are developing a new type of eco-friendly energy source on paper-based substrates using nanocellulose as an integral component combined with other environmentally benign materials. The fabrication is done using scalable printing processes and our devices are targeted for low cost large volume applications within environmental and agricultural sensing, food packaging tracking and sensing and biomedical devices and implants.
Ultralight Gold Aerogels
We used amyloid fibrils as a green route to nucleate gold crystals from a gold salt solution and engineered ultraporous aerogels using the high aspect ratio amyloid fibrils as building blocks. The final materials had the traditional appearance of solid gold yet a fraction of its weight (1000 times lighter at 20 kt equivalent quality). These soft materials can furthermore be molded into various shapes and depending on the size of the gold crystal display extended e.g. catalytic or pressure sensing functionality.
3D LbL Assemblies
Layer-by-layer assembly is a versatile method to construct functional surfaces and coatings using a variety of polymers, biocolloids and nanoparticles. These assemblies are typically built up using alternating positive and negative charged layers on planar substrates and forming layers within bulk materials is typically challenging. We developed a fast and precise method to functionalize the pore walls of nanocellulose aerogels and showed that this could be used to build fully interdigitated 3D electronic devices within the aerogels.
Amyloid Fibril Tactoids
Amyloid fibrils are a chiral protein-based system, formed through the self-assembly of β-sheet aggregates into twisted or helical ribbons. Traditionally they are known in relation to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease but recently they have gained increasing attention as important building blocks for bionanotechnology, where they can serve as a versatile platform for new functional biomaterials. We studied amyloid fibrils confined in small liquid crystal droplets, so called tactoids, and showed that the size of the droplet can dictate the structure that emerge within the droplet including the formation of homogenous, bipolar and chiral nematic phases.
Twisted Fibrils
Our work in this area is dedicated to a detailed investigation of the structure of single nanocellulose fibrils including studies of how they bend, twist and break as a result of chemical or mechanical treatments. We have specifically shown how the charge density can be used as a tool to tune aspect ratio, amount of right-handed twisting and density of mechanical artefacts in the form of kinks. We believe that knowledge of the individual nanocellulose structure may have an impact on the self-organization of these biological colloids and their optimal use in new nanomaterials.
Nanofiber Aerogels
Aerogels are a class of nanomaterials that combine ultralight weight with low thermal conductivity and optical translucency. Today, the most commonly used gel precursor is based on silica and the resulting materials are mesoporous and highly thermally insulating but are tainted by mechanical brittleness. In this project we used well controlled organic nanofibers as a starting point to map out and understand the structure-property relations between the nanoscale structural features of the aerogel building blockst and its macroscopic mechanical response.