Page 14 - Georgia Forestry - Spring 2017

Above: Using
a small-scale manufacturing setup, resin is combined with glass fibers. Nanocellulose
is then incorporated, and the polymer is compressed into a panel.
edged panel. It’s a crude version of a rock-hard yet lightweight material that could one day be used in the bodies of cars.
You’d never think it, but in some iterations of this very human-made bit of polymer, there are actually glimmers of life.
That life comes from a substance, a very fine powder called nanocellulose, that Kalaitzidou incor- porates into the components. Sometimes it’s mixed with the resin. Other times it coats the glass fibers.
In a cramped lab overlooking Hi-bay, one of Kalaitzidou’s post-docs, a chemical engineer named Joyanta Goswami, gave two curious journalists a peek at it.
The nanocellulose looks a lot like baking soda — bright white and lighter than air. (Other versions are freeze dried into flakes that resemble potato chips or
invisibly suspended in fluid.) Goswami dumps the powder into a beaker of water and digs into the nano- cellulose with a metal spatula. As he stirs the powder to dislodge it, it congeals into wafer-shaped clumps that tumble and flutter in the swirling water, looking much like tiny, snow-colored leaves.
It’s a reminder that there is nature here in this science lab that would seem to be nothing but hard surfaces and sharp angles. Despite all appearances, nanocellulose is a derivative of wood. It’s highly pro- cessed, yes, but there’s no mistaking its origin. This stuff used to be a tree.
And yet, it’s also the future of manufacturing.
Of course, the idea of returning to the renewable and/or recyclable basics — and moving away from plastics and other petroleum-based materials — is nothing new. In the marketplace, green is golden PR,
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