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: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=766082
• 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.

预计在接下来的十几年中，世界人口将增加十亿人口，这些人将需要粮食和能量，以及可以将材料返回地球而无需垃圾填埋或乱扔垃圾的材料。对于后者，我们可以将农业吸管，木纤维和其他植物生物量的资源用于许多创新的应用。但是，实用性是植物内的组件非常复杂，因此在工业上难以使用，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征。 在我们的研究计划中，我们提取具有专门加工方法的生物聚合物，以限制材料的固有变异性，并表征结构和产生的特性，以便将它们转化为有用的，重要的是均匀的材料。以前的材料示例包括用于超级电容器应用的碳气凝岩，用于油/水分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，我们通过简单的热处理中创建了从水溶液中旋转的多糖纳米纤维。此外，我们能够分离出杂多糖并将其转化为单晶纳米颗粒，这是通过低温电子显微镜揭示的。我们还意外地发现，Xylan可以在界面上结晶。 在此提案中，我们将复杂的异质糖含量从植物资源转化为受控大小和表面化学的均质纳米颗粒的概念。我们将利用合成化学中开发的单晶方法来帮助实现定义尺寸的Xylan晶体。我们还将利用在界面上结晶的能力，以建立二维膜，并研究形成超稳的乳液以延长食品搁板寿命的潜在可食用涂层的方法。 Xylan纳米颗粒将表面功能化以形成化合物，这些化合物可以将银盐降低到纳米颗粒或吸附金纳米颗粒中，这些纳米颗粒将能够作为化学和生物传感的诊断诊断的表面增强的拉曼光谱底物。 该计划中的“我们”代表了才华横溢，好奇的学生和博士后研究员，这些研究员为研究计划产生了重要的发现并共同努力。拟议的研究将为出色的培训提供机会，在该培训中，学员将成为木质纤维素生物量结构和加工方面的专家，从而为他们提供了包括光谱，热分析和高级纳米级成像方法的分析技能。该集团中有2名博士学位学生和10名本科生支持的设备资源将得到这项赠款的充分准备，以使重要的纳米技术领域的出色职业在可持续方法和绿色化学领域锚定。