David P. Durkin, Associate Chair- Captain, United States Naval Academy
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
Abstract:
Transformative Mesoporous Biocomposites
Biopolymer materials possess unique natural ordering on multiple length scales providing them with highly desirable properties such as high strength, flexibility and thermal stability. These materials are also earth abundant, sustainable, and biodegradable. Unfortunately, leveraging these amazing materials is greatly constrained due to our inability to process them without denaturing their essential hierarchical structures. Since 2010, our lab has developed Natural Fiber Welding (NFW) as a processing methodology for biopolymer materials. NFW leverages the unique solvating power of ionic liquids to mobilize and reorganize a natural fiber’s outermost polymer strands into a reconfigured welded matrix while still maintaining the vast majority of its native structure.
Recent work in our laboratory on cellulose has shown relatively simple modifications to the NFW process can drastically impact the matrix morphology, particularly surface area and porosity. We can now produce fiber-welded biomaterials with a 20,000-fold difference in surface area and deliver high surface area samples with tunable mesoporosity. The mesoporous scaffold presents an opportunity to design biopolymer materials for exciting new applications, if the chemistry can be understood and controlled.
Our current research aims to develop a more fundamental understanding of the formation of mesoporous biomaterial surface structures during NFW and leverage this controllable surface to produce transformative materials. We systematically explore how changes in the NFW process impact the resulting cellulose biomaterial surface structure and porosity. We explore how tuning the chemistry of the substrate impacts the fate and utility of the matrix. We also use the developed mesoporosity to entrap functional nanoparticles so that they are robustly bound within the matrix but maintain access to the surrounding environment for applications such as catalysis, UV protection, and more. The current presentation will present an update on the state of the art.