Page 19 - Georgia Forestry - Spring 2017

“Nanocellulose is not a new material, but it’s more available to us now. There
are papers from
the 1950s in which
people were looking
at what we now
know to be cellulose
nanomaterials. But it
wasn’t fully exploited
until facilities were
available so that we
could work on them
on a larger scale.”
— Meisha L. Shofner, Associate Director, Renewable Bioproducts Institute
“When there’s an application, I think the investment will follow.”
Most of the scientists we spoke to referred to “interest” and some funding from private industry sources. Govern- ment investment comes from places like the U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities’ Public-Private Part- nership for Nanotechnology (P3Nano). They also receive funding from the Renewable Bioproducts Institute.
But perhaps one of the most convinc- ing indicators of nanocellulose’s future comes from overseas, as is often the case with green innovation.
Georgia Tech’s Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics, run by Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Bernard Kippelen, has made great strides in creating organic solar cells, light-emitting diodes and transistors on surfaces crafted with nanocellulose.
“Sometimes you have those a-ha moments when the students are jumping up and down in the lab,” Kippelen says with a wry smile at his Georgia Tech office.
But the next step toward actual man- ufacturing is happening at Georgia Tech-Lorraine’s Lafayette Institute in Metz, France. Kippelen, who is the institute’s co-president, reports that Lafayette is currently working with a €30 million (a little under $32 million)
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