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Due to their exceptional mechanical and chemical properties and their natural abundance, cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are promising building blocks of sustainable polymer composites. However, the rapid gelation of CNC dispersions has generally limited CNC-based composites to low CNC fractions, in which polymer remains the dominant phase. Here we report on the formulation and processing of crosslinked CNC-epoxy composites with a CNC fraction exceeding 50 wt.%. The microstructure comprises sub-micrometer aggregates of CNCs crosslinked to polymer, which are analogous to the lamellar structure of nacre and promotes toughening mechanisms associated with bulk ductile behavior, despite the brittle behavior of the aggregates at the nanoscale. At 63 wt.% CNCs, the composites exhibit a hardness of 0.66 GPa and a fracture toughness of 5.2 MPa.m$^{1/2}$. The hardness of this all-organic material is comparable to aluminum alloys, and the fracture toughness at the centimeter scale is comparable to that of wood cell wall. We show that CNC-epoxy composite objects can be shaped from the gel precursors by direct-write printing and by casting, while the cured composites can be machined into complex 3D shapes. The formulation, processing route, and the insights on toughening mechanisms gained from our multiscale approach can be applied broadly to highly loaded nanocomposites.
Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)-polymer composites are promising candidates for a myriad of applications. Ad-hoc CNTs-polymer composite fabrication techniques inherently pose roadblock to optimized processing resulting in microstructural defects i.e., void f
Radio, millimetre and sub-millimetre astronomy experiments as well as remote sensing applications often require castable absorbers with well known electromagnetic properties to design and realize calibration targets. In this context, we fabricated an
Daytime radiative cooling has attracted considerable attention recently due to its tremendous potential for passively exploiting the coldness of deep-sky as clean and renewable energy. Many advanced materials with novel photonic micro-nanostructures
Modelling of single cellulose fibres is usually performed by assuming homogenous properties, such as strength and Young s modulus, for the whole fibre. Additionally, the inhomogeneity in size and swelling behaviour along the fibre is often disregarde
Metal-Nb$_{2}$O$_{5-x}$-metal memdiodes exhibiting rectification, hysteresis, and capacitance are demonstrated for applications in neuromorphic circuitry. These devices do not require any post-fabrication treatments such as filament creation by elect