Market Assessment on Functional cellulose nanocrystals for advanced engineering applications

纤维素纳米晶体（CNCs）是从森林或农业生物质中提取的可持续纳米材料。

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.