Market Assessment on Functional cellulose nanocrystals for advanced engineering applications

纤维素纳米晶体（CNC）是来自森林或农业生物质的可持续纳米材料， 并且它们目前由Celluforce Inc.以工业规模生产。在加拿大的魁北克，世界上第一个 也是唯一的硫酸化氯化萘生产商CNC是直径为5-10 nm的棒状纳米颗粒（NP）， 长度范围为200-400 nm，并且它们由通过氢键保持在一起以形成纤维素链的纤维素链组成。 鲁棒纳米颗粒。与具有更大的无定形部分的散装纤维素相比，CNC表现出高的 比强度、高表面积和独特的液晶性质。CNC是可生物降解的， 可再生的，并作为生态可持续和可生物降解的载体材料或“支架”， 化学功能化，以实现广泛的有用应用，包括： 用于生物诊断或生物催化的（酶），抗菌涂层材料，绿色化学催化，载体 用于医疗诊断生物传感器、水修复剂、特殊光学效应材料等。CNCs 也可用作许多聚合物纳米复合材料的增强组分， 仅用非常低重量分数的CNC（通常0.5- 2wt%）改善机械性能。在 滑铁卢大学的TAM小组已经开发了各种形式的功能化CNC， 这些混合纳米粒子具有许多吸引人的特性，可用于各种 的应用程序。这些应用中的一些包括抗菌剂、水处理、能量储存和生物降解。 可印刷电子产品开发的技术受两项已批准的专利保护，另有4项正在申请中。 专利申请。该提案描述了一项市场评估计划，以确定最合适的 将这些技术推向市场的商业化战略。

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are sustainable nanomaterials derived from the forest or agriculture biomass, and they are currently produced at an industrial scale by Celluforce Inc. in Quebec, Canada, the world's first and only producer of sulfated CNCs. CNCs are rod-shaped nanoparticles (NPs) with a diameter of 5-10 nm and length ranging from 200-400 nm, and they consist of cellulose chain held together by hydrogen bonds to form a robust nanoparticle. Compared to bulk cellulose, which has greater amorphous fractions, CNCs exhibit high specific strength, high surface area, and unique liquid crystalline properties. CNCs are biodegradable, renewable, and serve as an eco-sustainable and biodegradable carrier material or "scaffold" which can be chemically functionalized to enable a wide range of useful applications, including: binding of proteins (enzymes) for biodiagnostics or biocatalysis, antimicrobial coating materials, green chemical catalysis, carriers for medical diagnostic biosensors, water remediation agents, special optical effect materials, and more. CNCs can also be used as a strengthening component for many polymer nanocomposite materials, providing improved mechanical properties with only a very low weight-fraction of CNCs (typically 0.5-2 wt%). At the University of Waterloo, the TAM group has developed various forms of functionalized CNCs using scalable chemistry, and these hybrid nanoparticles possess many attractive properties, which can be used for a varieties of applications. Some of these applications include antibacterial agents, water treatment, energy storage and printable electronics. The technology developed is protected by two approved patents, and 4 additional pending patent applications. This proposal describes a plan for a market assessment to establish the most appropriate commercialization strategies to take these technologies to the market.