A familiar problem for producers of coatings and polyolefins is what literature calls blocking. When blocking occurs, it is the coatings ability to create adhesion to itself that causes the problems. There are many available technologies for avoiding this, in which some are synthetically derived, and others are derived directly from nature. Could a bio-based alternative give you the effect you are looking for? If you are looking for some ideas, this is the blog post to read.

Cellulose fibrils have been written and talked about for years. A substantial amount of reports have been written prospecting all sorts of application areas. Based on its functionalities, it seems to be a good rheology modifier, a good stabilizer and it is showing substantial strength enhancement. But is there any proof to the pudding and where do we find the latest developments? I have tried to gather a couple of relevant examples for you, which to me are fairly new developments. Dig into this week’s blog post to find out what they are!

Bio-based is on everyone's lips these days, and there are a high number of initiatives going on in innovating new product systems with a bio-based background. In this post I will give you a sneak peak into the improvement of an organic solvent system, using a biobased addtive as an example. Cellulose fibrils is a green and environmentally friendly material that consists of a complex three dimensional network of cellulose microfibrils.

It is well known that cellulose fibrils , because of its high surface area and many available hydroxyl (OH) groups, has a high affinity for water. This result in a material with very high water holding capacity that forms strong gels in water at low concentrations. Since cellulose fibrils is so fond of water, it might be easy to think that the material would not perform well if it was dispersed in other solvent systems. However, this is far from the truth!

This week I would like to discuss water-based systems where the challenge is to apply the product effectively on a surface. This can be true for a high number of products ranging from coatings, adhesives, composites (for instance plastics), materials for 3D printing, deicing products and so on. The downstream processing and application of the product is by medium or high shear equipment, meaning either a roller, brush, a spray or the like. This calls for a shear thinning rheology system to stabilize the formulation and give the correct viscosity at each step.

Ever heard about bouligand structures or tunicates? And how are these topics relating to nanocellulose? This week’s research review is giving you a summary of some really exciting news relating to strength performance from nanocellulose (nanocrystalline cellulose). In addition, we are bringing you news on nanocellulose as an art-preservation aid. Spend 4 minutes and read through some really interesting updates.

One of my favorite characteristics of the cellulose fibrils is its behavior when drying or involved in the drying process of a product system. I have learned through some of our conducted tests that cellulose fibrils can act in an interesting and often beneficial way towards obtaining desired end product characteristics. Most of the examples on how the fibrils influence the drying are related to coatings. I however believe that similar behavior is possible to observe in application areas where a tight control of dry-out properties is desired. Evaporation of solvents is often the main technique for drying in many applications. I will therefore focus my blog post this time on this specific drying technique. Let me share some very interesting insights into why cellulose fibrils are improving the products upon drying.

OK, so this case fascinated me a great deal. I have previously learned a lot on film forming properties, oxygen barrier properties and other related topics to this in the past. But recently I learned that the properties from microfibrillated cellulose and cellulose fibrils is starting to show potential in art preservation or conservation. But how does this take place, and what’s the main functionalities behind all this? I spent some time researching the subject, and today I am sharing my findings with you. Some key words: stability, transparency and mechanical strength. Dig in to learn more!

It is important for producers of coatings to control flow and stability. The way to do this in water borne systems has typically been a work for synthetically derived additives, water-soluble cellulose derivatives or clays. Can cellulose fibrils do anything new for you?

Continuously following the world of cellulose fibrils and the development is both dynamic and interesting. A lot of new inventions are taking place, based on the cellulose fibrils. We have given 3D printing a quite high focus in the last couple of reviews, but this week there are two other news items on the list: composites made from cellulose fibrils. Dig into this week’s research review to find out more on what might possibly be the next generation of composite materials.

The performance coatings sector has seen decades of development to protect installations and transportation equipment. The sector has been highly dominated by solvent based systems and these systems have seen incremental innovations for a long period of time. The end-user demands for these systems have been set in a context of a world in an ever-changing environment: high pressure on efficiency, increased globalization and international trade, as well as the period of increased climate focus. So how is this world going to look in the near future? In my attempt to share thoughts on this subject, I will focus on the rheology system, how its currently being solved and how it can be solved with alternative, more environmentally friendly technologies in the future.