Design of New Piezoelectric Composites Using Nanocellulose

Using cellulose crystals as building blocks for the design and development of new low-density functional polymer composites.

Air Force Research Laboratory, Arlington, Virginia

This research project focused on cellulose crystals as building blocks for the design and development of new low-density functional polymer composites. Although the piezoelectricity of cellulose has been predicted from its noncentrosymmetric crystal structure, it has not been measured accurately, nor has cellulose been properly exploited as a piezoelectric material. If it is proven, it could enable novel low-density electroactive materials capable of surpassing the performance of the best synthetic piezoelectric polymer such as polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF).

To fulfill this objective, a systematic study was required to judiciously manipulate dipoles of individual cellulose nanocrystals to produce polar ordering at the macroscale and accurately characterize the nano-to-mesoscale structural ordering and electromechanical properties of the produced materials.