A new bio-based nanomaterial: Fundamental understanding of xylan single crystals for functional applications

新型生物基纳米材料：对木聚糖单晶功能应用的基本了解

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-05465
• 负责人: Renneckar, Scott
• 金额: $ 3.35万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=740568
• 关键词: new; bio; based; nanomaterial; Fundamental

The world's population is expected to increase by a billion people in the next dozen years and these people will need food and energy, along with materials that can be returned to the earth without landfilling or littering the world's oceans. For the latter, we can use resources from agricultural straw, wood fibre, and other plant biomass for many innovative applications. However, the practicality is that the components within the plants are extremely complex, making them hard to use industrially, as nature utilizes complex biopolymers to achieve properties and desired traits of biological materials. In our research program, we extract biopolymers with specialized processing methods that limit the inherent variability of the material and we characterize the structure and resulting properties in order to transform them into useful, and importantly, uniform, materials. Previous examples of materials include carbon aerogels for supercapacitor applications, flexible lignin sponges for oil/water separation, and simple lignin esters for hydrophobic coatings. Supported in the most recent DG period, we created polysaccharide nanofibres spun from water solutions with controlled hydrophilicity by simple thermal treatment. In addition, we were able to isolate heteropolysaccharides and transform them into single crystal nanoparticles, revealed by cryo-electron microscopy. We also unexpectedly found that xylan could crystallize at interfaces. In this proposal, we are expanding the concept of conversion of complicated hetero-polysaccharides from plant resources into homogeneous nanoparticles of controlled size and surface chemistry. We will utilize the single-crystal methods developed in synthetic chemistry to help achieve xylan crystals of defined dimensions. We will also exploit the ability to crystallize at interfaces to establish two-dimensional membranes and investigate methods to form ultra-stable emulsions to potential edible coatings to extend the shelf life of foods. The xylan nanoparticles will be surface functionalized to form compounds that can reduce silver salts into nanoparticles or adsorb gold nanoparticles that would be able to serve as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrates for diagnostics for chemical and biological sensing. The "we" in the program represents the talented and curious students and post-doctoral fellows that generate significant findings and work together for the research program. The proposed research will provide opportunity for outstanding training where trainees will become experts in lignocellulose biomass structure and processing, giving them analytical skills that includes spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and advanced nanoscale imaging methods. With outstanding equipment resources in the group, 2 PhD students and 10 undergraduate students supported will be well prepared by this grant to have outstanding careers in important nanotechnology field anchored by sustainable approaches and green chemistry.

世界人口预计将在未来十几年内增加10亿，这些人将需要食物和能源，以及可以返回地球的材料，而不需要填埋或丢弃世界海洋。对于后者，我们可以利用农业秸秆、木材纤维和其他植物生物质的资源进行许多创新应用。然而，实际情况是，植物内部的成分非常复杂，使得它们很难在工业上使用，因为大自然利用复杂的生物聚合物来实现生物材料的特性和所需的特性。在我们的研究项目中，我们用专门的加工方法提取生物聚合物，限制材料的固有可变性，我们表征结构和所得特性，以便将它们转化为有用的，重要的是，均匀的材料。以前的材料例子包括用于超级电容器的碳气凝胶，用于油/水分离的柔性木质素海绵，以及用于疏水涂层的简单木质素酯。在最近的DG时期的支持下，我们通过简单的热处理，从具有控制亲水性的水溶液中制备了多糖纳米纤维。此外，我们能够分离杂多糖并将其转化为单晶纳米颗粒，通过低温电子显微镜显示。我们还意外地发现木聚糖可以在界面处结晶。在这个提议中，我们正在扩展从植物资源中复杂的杂多糖转化为控制尺寸和表面化学的均匀纳米颗粒的概念。我们将利用合成化学中发展的单晶方法来帮助实现确定尺寸的木聚糖晶体。我们还将利用在界面处结晶的能力来建立二维膜，并研究形成超稳定乳剂的方法，以形成潜在的可食用涂层，以延长食品的保质期。木聚糖纳米颗粒将被表面功能化，形成可以将银盐还原成纳米颗粒或吸附金纳米颗粒的化合物，这将能够作为表面增强的拉曼光谱基底，用于化学和生物传感的诊断。项目中的“我们”代表有才华和好奇的学生和博士后研究员，他们产生了重大的发现，并为研究项目共同努力。拟议的研究将为优秀的培训提供机会，学员将成为木质纤维素生物质结构和加工方面的专家，赋予他们分析技能，包括光谱、热分析和先进的纳米级成像方法。本基金资助的2名博士研究生和10名本科生，将凭借集团内优秀的设备资源，在可持续发展方法和绿色化学的基础上，在重要的纳米技术领域有出色的职业发展。