CoMa: Utilizing water as a structural component in cellulose-based materials design

CoMa project is focusing on the fundamentals of water interactions in cellulosic substrates with the aim of utilising the information in functional materials, i.e., employing water as an asset rather than regarding it as a nuisance in cellulose-based materials. Top analytical tools will be exploited with the experimental constraints for the matrix set by computer simulations. Instead of focusing on just one parameter, we will explore the interconnections between water responsiveness, accessibility, geometrical constraints, and chemical composition. The knowledge will be utilised when controlling e.g. porosity/density balance of hydrogels, membranes and barriers in presence of water. CoMa follows the established scientific roadmap with the goal to open up new avenues to build materials that rely on high hygroscopicity of cellulose.

Main results

Will be updated soon.

Publications

• Han Tao, Carlo Rigoni, Hailong Li, Antti Koistinen, Jaakko V. I. Timonen, Jiancheng Zhou, Eero Kontturi, Orlando J. Rojas & Guang Chu, Thermodynamically controlled multiphase separation of heterogeneous liquid crystal colloids, Nature Communications, 14, 5277 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41054-7

• Tuuli Virkkala, Sergey Kosourov, Ville Rissanen, Vilja Siitonen, Suvi Arola, Yagut Allahverdiyeva and Tekla Tammelin, Bioinspired mechanically stable all-polysaccharide based scaffold for photosynthetic production, J. Mater. Chem. B, (2023). https://doi.org/10.1039/D3TB00919J

Research Project Managers

Eero Kontturi, Aalto

Tekla Tammelin, VTT

Project status

Funded by FinnCERES from January 2022 onwards.