Title |
Thermally insulating and fire-retardant lightweight anisotropic foams based on nanocellulose and graphene oxide
|
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Published in |
Nature Nanotechnology, November 2014
|
DOI | 10.1038/nnano.2014.248 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Bernd Wicklein, Andraž Kocjan, German Salazar-Alvarez, Federico Carosio, Giovanni Camino, Markus Antonietti, Lennart Bergström |
Abstract |
High-performance thermally insulating materials from renewable resources are needed to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. Traditional fossil-fuel-derived insulation materials such as expanded polystyrene and polyurethane have thermal conductivities that are too high for retrofitting or for building new, surface-efficient passive houses. Tailored materials such as aerogels and vacuum insulating panels are fragile and susceptible to perforation. Here, we show that freeze-casting suspensions of cellulose nanofibres, graphene oxide and sepiolite nanorods produces super-insulating, fire-retardant and strong anisotropic foams that perform better than traditional polymer-based insulating materials. The foams are ultralight, show excellent combustion resistance and exhibit a thermal conductivity of 15 mW m(-1) K(-1), which is about half that of expanded polystyrene. At 30 °C and 85% relative humidity, the foams retained more than half of their initial strength. Our results show that nanoscale engineering is a promising strategy for producing foams with excellent properties using cellulose and other renewable nanosized fibrous materials. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Slovenia | 2 | 20% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 10% |
Australia | 1 | 10% |
France | 1 | 10% |
Sweden | 1 | 10% |
Unknown | 4 | 40% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 9 | 90% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 10% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Switzerland | 2 | <1% |
Sweden | 2 | <1% |
Spain | 2 | <1% |
Slovenia | 1 | <1% |
France | 1 | <1% |
Denmark | 1 | <1% |
Belgium | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 797 | 99% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 188 | 23% |
Researcher | 104 | 13% |
Student > Master | 94 | 12% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 50 | 6% |
Student > Bachelor | 49 | 6% |
Other | 114 | 14% |
Unknown | 208 | 26% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Materials Science | 160 | 20% |
Engineering | 122 | 15% |
Chemistry | 121 | 15% |
Chemical Engineering | 40 | 5% |
Physics and Astronomy | 22 | 3% |
Other | 59 | 7% |
Unknown | 283 | 35% |