Sargassum Nanocellulose-Based Fully Ingestible Supercapacitor.

Small high-performance energy modules have significant practical value in the biomedical field, such as painless diagnosis, alleviation of gastrointestinal discomfort, and electrical stimulation therapy. However, due to performance limitations and safety concerns, it is a formidable challenge to design a small, emerging ingestible power supply. Here, a fully ingestible supercapacitor (FISC) constructed of sargassum cellulose nanofiber is presented.

Strong and Fireproof Regenerated Wood a Combined Phosphorylation-Surface Nanofibrillation and Ionic Cross-Linking Strategy.

To reduce the environmental impact of plastics, an increasing number of high-performance sustainable materials have emerged. Among them, wood-based high-performance structural materials have gained growing attention due to their outstanding mechanical and thermal properties. Here, we introduce phosphate groups onto the wood veneers for surface nanofibrillation, effectively altering both the molecular structure and surface morphology of wood, which enhances the interactions between wood veneers and endows the wood with excellent fire resistance properties.

A Robust, Biodegradable, and Fire-Retardant Cellulose Nanofibers-Based Structural Material Fabricated from Natural Sargassum.

With increasing concern about the environmental pollution of petrochemical plastics, people are constantly exploring environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative materials. Compared with petrochemical materials, cellulose has overwhelming superiority in terms of mechanical properties, thermal properties, cost, and biodegradability. However, the flammability of cellulose hinders its practical application to a certain extent, so improving the fire-retardant properties of cellulose nanofiber-based materials has become a research focus.

Sustainable High-Performance Structural Materials from Micro/nanostructured Corn Stover.

Corn stover, as an abundant agricultural residue, has not been well reutilized due to the lack of efficient utilization methods. Based on micro/nanoscale structure design of corn stover, we report an environmentally friendly strategy to prepare micro/nanostructured corn stover-based building blocks. Then, through the directed deformation assembly approach, a high value-added corn stover structural material (CSSM) that with higher strength and more excellent thermal stability than most widely used plastics and wood-plastic composites can be prepared.

A Bioinspired Gradient Design Strategy for Cellulose-Based Electromagnetic Wave Absorbing Structural Materials.

Cellulose nanofiber (CNF) possesses excellent intrinsic properties, and many CNF-based high-performance structural and functional materials have been developed recently. However, the coordination of the mechanical properties and functionality is still a considerable challenge. Here, a CNF-based structural material is developed by a bioinspired gradient structure design using hollow magnetite nanoparticles and the phosphorylation-modified CNF as building blocks, which simultaneously achieves a superior mechanical performance and electromagnetic wave absorption (EMA) ability.

Nacre-Inspired Bacterial Cellulose/Mica Nanopaper with Excellent Mechanical and Electrical Insulating Properties by Biosynthesis.

The exploration of extreme environments has become necessary for understanding and changing nature. However, the development of functional materials suitable for extreme conditions is still insufficient. Herein, a kind of nacre-inspired bacterial cellulose (BC)/synthetic mica (S-Mica) nanopaper with excellent mechanical and electrical insulating properties that has excellent tolerance to extreme conditions is reported.

An All-Natural Wood-Inspired Aerogel.

The oriented pore structure of wood endows it with a variety of outstanding properties, among which the low thermal conductivity has attracted researchers to develop wood-like aerogels as excellent thermal insulation materials. However, the increasing demands of environmental protection have put forward new and strict requirements for the sustainability of aerogels. Here, we report an all-natural wood-inspired aerogel consisting of all-natural ingredients and develop a method to activate the surface-inert wood particles to construct the aerogel.

Ultrastrong, Thermally Stable, and Food-Safe Seaweed-Based Structural Material for Tableware.

Widely used disposable plastic tableware is usually buried or directly discharged into the natural environment after using, which poses potential threats to the natural environment and human health. To solve this problem, nondegradable plastic tableware needs to be replaced by tableware composed of biodegradable structural materials with both food safety and the excellent mechanical and thermal properties. Here, a food-safe sargassum cellulose nanofiber (SCNF) is extracted from common seaweed in an efficient and low energy consuming way under mild reaction conditions.