News tagged with cellulose
Materials inspired by Mother Nature: A 1-pound boat that could float 1,000 pounds
Combining the secrets that enable water striders to walk on water and give wood its lightness and great strength has yielded an amazing new material so buoyant that, in everyday terms, a boat made from 1 pound of the substance ...
Mar 25, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (33) |
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Researchers create iridescent glass that can reflect UV or infrared light
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using nanocrystals of cellulose, the main component of pulp and paper, chemistry researchers at the University of British Columbia have created glass films that have applications for energy ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 17, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (22) |
0
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Scientists overcome major obstacles to cellulosic biofuel production
A newly engineered yeast strain can simultaneously consume two types of sugar from plants to produce ethanol, researchers report. The sugars are glucose, a six-carbon sugar that is relatively easy to ferment; ...
Dec 27, 2010 |
4.6 / 5 (21) |
13
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Salt and Paper Battery May One Day Replace Lithium Batteries
(PhysOrg.com) -- Salt and paper battery can be used in many low-power devices, such as medical implants, RFID tags, wireless sensors and smart cards. This battery uses a thin-film which makes it an attractive ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Sep 15, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (18) |
6
Researchers create rollerball-pen ink to draw circuits
(PhysOrg.com) -- Two professors from the University of Illinois; one specializing in materials science, the other in electrical engineering, have combined their talents to take the idea of printing circuits ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jun 28, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (15) |
9
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Could a paper transistor offer an alternative to silicon?
(PhysOrg.com) -- As technology advances, scientists look for ways to enhance electronic applications and devices. Indeed, electronics are getting smaller and more diverse. And as this happens, there is an increased requirement ...
Sep 22, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (15) |
6
Company that transforms garbage into ethanol attracts big investors
(PhysOrg.com) -- For the past several years, Montreal-based company Enerkem has been working on a way to make ethanol from old utility poles and household garbage. Earlier this week, the company announced ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
Jun 03, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (13) |
15
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Plastic that grows on trees, part two
Some researchers hope to turn plants into a renewable, nonpolluting replacement for crude oil. To achieve this, scientists have to learn how to convert plant biomass into a building block for plastics and fuels cheaply and ...
May 19, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (13) |
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E. coli bacteria engineered to eat switchgrass and make transportation fuels
A milestone has been reached on the road to developing advanced biofuels that can replace gasoline, diesel and jet fuels with a domestically-produced clean, green, renewable alternative.
Nov 29, 2011 |
5 / 5 (10) |
4
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Two-step chemical process turns raw biomass into biofuel
(PhysOrg.com) -- Taking a chemical approach, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a two-step method to convert the cellulose in raw biomass into a promising biofuel. The process, which is described ...
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
2
Chemists discover method to create high-value chemicals from biomass
Iowa State University researchers have found a way to produce high-value chemicals such as ethylene glycol and propylene glycol from biomass rather than petroleum sources.
Sep 02, 2010 |
5 / 5 (8) |
0
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Trained bacteria convert bio-wastes into plastic
Dutch researcher Jean-Paul Meijnen has 'trained' bacteria to convert all the main sugars in vegetable, fruit and garden waste efficiently into high-quality environmentally friendly products such as bioplastics.
Nov 19, 2010 |
5 / 5 (8) |
1
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Light but stable: novel cellulose-silica gel composite aerogels
(PhysOrg.com) -- Delicate and translucent as a puff of air, yet mechanically stable, flexible, and possessing amazing heat-insulation properties—these are the properties of a new aerogel made of cellulose ...
Jan 27, 2012 |
5 / 5 (8) |
1
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Troublesome green algae serve as coating substrate in record-setting battery
(PhysOrg.com) -- Unwanted blooms of Cladophora algae throughout the Baltic and in other parts of the world are not entirely without a positive side. A group of researchers at the Angstrom Laboratory at Uppsala University have d ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Sep 10, 2009 |
3.7 / 5 (10) |
9
Research team uses nanoparticles to make paper waterproof and magnetic
(Phys.org) -- Researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa, led by Roberto Cingolani, have devised a means for connecting cellulose fibers in ordinary paper with nanoparticles resulting in new desired properties, ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Apr 20, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (8) |
1
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Cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula (C6H10O5)n, a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β(1→4) linked D-glucose units.
Cellulose is the structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants, many forms of algae and the oomycetes. Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms. Cellulose is the most common organic compound on Earth. About 33 percent of all plant matter is cellulose (the cellulose content of cotton is 90 percent and that of wood is 50 percent).
For industrial use, cellulose is mainly obtained from wood pulp and cotton. It is mainly used to produce cardboard and paper; to a smaller extent it is converted into a wide variety of derivative products such as cellophane and rayon. Converting cellulose from energy crops into biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol is under investigation as an alternative fuel source.
Some animals, particularly ruminants and termites, can digest cellulose with the help of symbiotic micro-organisms that live in their guts. Cellulose is not digestible by humans and is often referred to as 'dietary fiber' or 'roughage', acting as a hydrophilic bulking agent for feces.
For more information about Cellulose, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
