Surface chemistry of nanocellulose and its composites

Cellulose is recurrently defined as the most abundant biopolymer on planet Earth, displaying an overall estimated production rate of more than 0.2 billion tons in a single day. Cellulose prompt availability allied to it its mechanical properties made it virtually indissociable from the majority of anthropogenic commodities. Nevertheless, continuous progress demands superior features form daily common materials, being most of them adequately suited by low-cost petrochemical polymers. Fortunately, the higher Environmental awareness of the global population as well as 1 the remarkable properties of biosynthesized polymers, has driven an extensive research on a plethora of biopolymers, including cellulose. Cellulose most notable features are associated to its crystal domains, which are impressively underscored with the development of cellulose nanotechnology. Moreover, at nanoscale the cellulose surface richness in hydroxyl groups is comprehensively more available, considerably t broadening he effectiveness and potential of their interaction per se, but also by enhancing the efficacy of surface modification and functionalization. Nanocellulose surface modification was implemented almost contemporary to its discovery and characterization, and its objectives ranged between improving yield of nanocellulose production, lower its production costs, and to provide nanocellulose a completely distinct surface properties by changing its polarity, generating different functional groups, decorating it with adsorbed or tightly bound nanoparticles, and to provide additional chemical compatibility with distinct compounds to generate advanced nanocomposites. The plethora of successfully reported modifications and functionalizations underscore notable properties of both modified nanocellulose and its composites. This Chapter intends to highlight these remarkable features, hopefully widening the scope of novel applications of these impressive bio-based polymers

Case study: the market is calling for Biolage R.A.W

Which one of us never noticed the emerging trend of natural products? The presented case study aims to study the increasing demand for natural and organic cosmetics and how can Biolage R.A.W. leverage from it. Biolage R.A.W. is a natural professional haircare brand taking its first steps in the Portuguese market. The brand is already facing a lack of awareness which, alongside with the higher prices of its products can leave the brand more exposed. So, how can Biolage R.A.W. come up with a launch strategy to solve these main problems? To better understand the market and brand, an exhaustive qualitative and quantitative analysis was developed that allowed to draw some primary conclusions: Millennials are the healthy beauty products generation and are willing to pay more for natural products. Regarding the launch communication strategy, Biolage R.A.W should follow an integrated communication strategy, using different communication options, creating synergies, to obtain different outcomes in a more cost-efficient way. Taking into consideration millennials’ characteristics, online platforms and e-influencers should take a big part of the brands’ communication. Although recent in the market, Biolage R.A.W. can easily be aware of the growing demand for natural cosmetics and take it as an opportunity to develop and expand the brand. In this case study is clear that the brand has four large strategic core areas to develop, of which two are remarkable for their potential for expansion: distribution channels and innovation. The brand must in the future explore new distribution channels such as natural supermarkets and prioritize a brand extension at the product and category level by launching a line of natural dyes for the hair.Quem de nós nunca notou a tendência emergente de produtos naturais? O estudo de caso apresentado visa estudar a crescente procura por cosméticos naturais e orgânicos e perceber como pode Biolage R.A.W. beneficiar com isso. Biolage R.A.W. é uma marca natural de cuidados capilares profissionais naturais que está atualmente a dar os primeiros passos no mercado português. Enfrenta já alguma falta de awereness que, juntamente com os preços altos praticados quando comparados com os seus concorrentes, a deixam mais suscetível a eventuais. Então, como pode Biolage R.A.W. encontrar uma estratégia de lançamento para resolver esses principais problemas? Para entender melhor o mercado e a marca, uma análise qualitativa e quantitativa exaustiva foi realizada de forma a retirar algumas conclusões principais: os millennials são uma geração de produtos de beleza saudáveis e estão dispostos a pagar mais por produtos naturais. Em relação à estratégia de comunicação de lançamento, Biolage R.A.W deve seguir uma comunicação integrada usando diferentes opções de comunicação, criando sinergias para obter diferentes resultados e de forma eficiente. Tendo em consideração as características dos millennials, as plataformas on-line e os influenciadores digitais devem ter parte fulcral da comunicação da marca. Embora recente no mercado, Biolage R.A.W. pode facilmente estar ciente da crescente procura por cosméticos naturais e encará-la como uma oportunidade para desenvolver e expandir a marca. Neste estudo de caso fica claro que a marca tem quatro grandes áreas estratégicas principais para desenvolver, das quais duas são notáveis pelo seu potencial de expansão: canais de distribuição e inovação. A marca deve, no futuro, explorar novos canais de distribuição, como os supermercados naturais, e priorizar a extensão da marca ao nível do produto e categoria, lançando uma linha de coloração natural para o cabel

Prospective on the use of bacterial cellulose as an antimicrobial edible film

Food and beverage packaging has been the target of an intensive conceptual revolution in the past twenty years, moving further away from the mere passive barriers highly dependent on petrochemical-based raw materials. The recent trends of the state of the art food packages consist of smart packages that are preferentially green manufactured due to environmental concerns, and edible, making it more practical to consume and simultaneously minimizing the resultant waste. Some of these smart packages are able to diagnose and inform “in real-time” the consumer/retailer of the encased food’s quality (intelligent packaging). Other packages are responsible for an active interaction with the food or food’s atmosphere increasing the products shelf life, improving its organoleptic and/or health properties (active packaging). The food and beverage packaging market is estimated to represent 1 trillion dollars by 2015 in the United States alone, making this field of research an interesting area to explore.The main goal of this work is to produce a novel edible packaging film with antimicrobial properties. The purpose of including a food grade antimicrobial compound is to delay the growth of microbial flora and thus increasing the food’s safety and delaying its spoilage. For the packaging main raw material we have chosen the bacterial cellulose, which may represent an interesting alternative to the classic plastic casings, since this natural biopolymer possess a high toughness (Young’s modulus of approx. 15 - 35 GPa), a low density (1.25 g cm-3), a high crystallinity (95%), it is biocompatible, is highly pure (total absence of hemicelluloses and pectin’s), provides a high surface area for modification (37 m2g-1), and finally, its low cost. As food-grade antimicrobial compound we selected the lactoferrin, a bilobar iron binding glycoprotein with a widely reported bactericidal effect. Different approaches are being used to covalently bind the protein onto bacterial cellulose. The preliminary antimicrobial effectiveness of the modified bacterial cellulose films is assessed by inhibition halo tests

Alginate and chitosan fibers produced with olive pomace by wet spinning

[Excerpt] Olive oil production generates a considerable amount of olive pomace (OP). This residue is made of olive skins, pulp and stones. Furthermore, it is rich in phenolic compounds which comprise antioxidant and antibacterial properties. This research envisages a sustainable valorization of this relevant Mediterranean waste through the inclusion of olive pomace powder to functionalize alginate and chitosan wet spun fibers. Both biopolymers are natural and biocompatible polysaccharides with numerous favourable properties, such as good biodegradation and non-toxicity

Use of natural extracts of Gunnera tinctoria and Buddleja globosa and loaded electrospun fibers with antimicrobial potential for application in the treatment of skin lesions

[Excerpt] Introduction Skin wounds are susceptible to infection by multiple types of microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and virus.This research was funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Competitiveness Program–COMPETE, under the project POCI-01-0247-FEDER-047124, and by National Funds through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), under the project UID/CTM/00264/2020. ANID N°21190396 Chilean Doctoral Scholarship. Doctorado en Ciencias de Recursos Naturales, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chil

Physical and chemical optimization of a synthetic medium for Pichia pastoris growth

The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is widely used as a host strain for the production of a variety of heterologous proteins. The basal salt medium (BSM) described by Invitrogen (2000) is one of the most broadly used media for this expression system, although it possesses many problems, namely unbalanced composition, salt precipitation and undesirable ionic strength. This medium also uses NH4OH simultaneously, as the nitrogen source and the pH corrector, fact that may be responsible for several growth constrains, namely nitrogen limitation and low protein productivity.ELASTM program - POCI 2010 (project POCI/CTM/57177/2004

Structural color for enhanced camouflage textiles

Apresentação efetuada na 3rd World Conference on Advanced Materials for Defense - AuxDefense 2022, em Guimarães, Portugal, 2022Fundação para a Ciência e a tecnologia (FCT

Effect of color substrate in structurally colored PES fabrics

Textile Industry is one of the most pollutant industries in world, thus serious efforts are required to decrease its chemical and water demand, especially during dyeing processes. [1] One strategy to achieve this is the use of photonic crystals (PCs), where color is produced by interactions between light and highly organized nanostructures, called structural coloration. [2] Structural coloration is a more ecological method to add color to fabrics due to its low water consumption, as water is only needed in the synthesis of the photonic crystals. Also, PCs produce brilliant and iridescent colors that are not possible to obtain with conventional dyeing processes. [3] Therefore, in this work an alternative to conventional dyeing is presented, where PCs are applied onto dyed polyester fabrics through a dip-drawing method, and color properties are analyzed

Extraction of cellulose-based polymers from textile wastes

[Excert] The extraction and exploration of cellulose-based polymers is an exciting area of research. For many years, wood (especially from bleached kraft wood pulp) was considered the main source of cellulosic compounds because of its abundance in nature [1,2]. However, in the past decade, researchers have been devoted to finding alternatives to extract cellulose from byproducts of agricultural crops and/or textile wastes, both highly available at a very reduced raw material cost.This research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) grants PTDC/CTMTEX/28074/2017, PTDC/CTM TEX/28295/2017 and UID/CTM/00264/2021

Tackling Nitrosomonas europaea culture problems for future applications in inshore aquaculture

Worldwide aquaculture production represents nearly 160 million tonnes per year, roughly the double of captured fish. Technological improvements are required to provide and improve sustainability to the constant aquaculture production growth. Inshore aquaculture reduces dramatically the risk of infection of the cultured organisms, as sea water is treated before use. Contrariwise, to prevent the increase of operational costs, water must be recirculated multiple times. The high cumulative load of ammonium produced during the fish metabolism requires an especially efficient water treatment, namely for the denitrification process, which usually relies on biological consortium processes to be cost-efficient. Thus, nitrifying and denitrifying microorganisms must be further studied and their production scaled up in order to allow the development of novel technologies and fulfil the increasing demand of denitrification units. Nitrosomonas europaea is the most extensively studied ammonia oxidizing bacteria, being a ubiquitous nitrification organism. Its vital role in the nitrogen cycle is however impaired by the limited energy achieved by this inefficient source of energy, which is partially dedicated to fixate carbon from gaseous carbon dioxide, restricting biomass production. For scale up purposes the design of a culture medium with no precipitation of its constituents is essential, since inorganic debris may significantly impair downstream processing. Moreover, a non-precipitating medium allows a maximum bioavailability of all elements present in its recipe and improves recirculation effectiveness. A new formulation for N. europaea culturing was studied and optimized, fulfilling the addressed objective. This formulation was further tested using moderate pressure displaying positive results in biomass output. The higher N. europaea cell concentration allowed an immobilization in a latex based biocoating, which was evaluated for a possible denitrifying cartridge application