Enhanced Hydrophobicity in Nanocellulose-Based Materials: Toward Green Wearable Devices

Superhydrophobic nanocellulose-based self-assembled flexible SERS substrates for pesticide detection

Flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates that provide simple sampling are helpful for the on-site detection of explosive contamination, pesticide residues on food surfaces, and water pollution in public spaces. Using superhydrophobic nanocellulose-based film as the support, 2D flexible SERS substrates that integrated sampling, enrichment, and detection were successfully fabricated via the solvent-induced evaporation method. This approach enabled the co-loading of two plasmonic nanoparticles with different sizes and shapes. A uniform and dense distribution of two-dimensional "hot spots" was created by the plasmonic nanoparticles' self-assembly on the hydrophobic substrate. By adjusting the loading ratio of Au-core/Ag-shell nanocubes and gold nanospheres, their synergistic effect optimized the "hot spots" structure and significantly increased the SERS signal intensity. Additionally, the hydrophobic property of the substrate allowed the target analytes to be concentrated throughout the drying process, significantly increasing the sensitivity of SERS detection. This flexible substrate can sensitively and accurately detect the pesticide residues of phosphorus and methyl parathion on apple peel with the detection limit of 10-7 g/L and relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 10 %. The high-performance SERS substrate has great potential for in-situ detection applications such as food safety and environmental monitoring.

Advanced functional materials based on nanocellulose/Mxene: A review

The escalating need for a sustainable future has driven the advancement of renewable functional materials. Nanocellulose, derived from the abundant natural biopolymer cellulose, demonstrates noteworthy characteristics, including high surface area, crystallinity, mechanical strength, and modifiable chemistry. When combined with two-dimensional (2D) graphitic materials, nanocellulose can generate sophisticated hybrid materials with diverse applications as building blocks, carriers, scaffolds, and reinforcing constituents. This review highlights the progress of research on advanced functional materials based on the integration of nanocellulose, a versatile biopolymer with tailorable properties, and MXenes, a new class of 2D transition metal carbides/nitrides known for their excellent conductivity, mechanical strength, and large surface area. By addressing the challenges and envisioning future prospects, this review underscores the burgeoning opportunities inherent in MXene/nanocellulose composites, heralding a sustainable frontier in the field of materials science.

Wearable sensor supports in-situ and continuous monitoring of plant health in precision agriculture era

Plant health is intricately linked to crop quality, food security and agricultural productivity. Obtaining accurate plant health information is of paramount importance in the realm of precision agriculture. Wearable sensors offer an exceptional avenue for investigating plant health status and fundamental plant science, as they enable real-time and continuous in-situ monitoring of physiological biomarkers. However, a comprehensive overview that integrates and critically assesses wearable plant sensors across various facets, including their fundamental elements, classification, design, sensing mechanism, fabrication, characterization and application, remains elusive. In this study, we provide a meticulous description and systematic synthesis of recent research progress in wearable sensor properties, technology and their application in monitoring plant health information. This work endeavours to serve as a guiding resource for the utilization of wearable plant sensors, empowering the advancement of plant health within the precision agriculture paradigm.

Recent progress and applications of cellulose and its derivatives-based humidity sensors: A review

Cellulose and its derivatives, which are low-cost, degradable, reproducible and highly hydrophilic, can serve as both substrate and humidity sensitive materials, making them more and more popular as ideal biomimetic materials for humidity sensors. Benefiting from these characteristics, cellulose-based humidity sensors cannot only exhibit high sensitivity, excellent mechanical performance, wide humidity response range, etc., but also can be applied to fields such as human health, medical care and agricultural product safety monitoring. Herein, cellulose-based humidity sensors are first classified according to the different conductive active materials, such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, electrolytes, metal compounds, and polymer materials, based on which the latest research progress is introduced, and the roles of different types of conductive materials in cellulose-based humidity sensors are analyzed and summarized. Besides, the similarities and differences in their working mechanisms are expounded. Finally, the application scenarios of cellulose-based humidity sensors in human movement respiration and skin surface humidity monitoring are discussed, which can make readers quickly familiarize the current preparation method, working mechanism and subsequent development trend of cellulose-based humidity sensors more effectively.

Nanoscale structural and electronic properties of cellulose/graphene interfaces

The development of electronic devices based on the functionalization of (nano)cellulose platforms relies upon an atomistic understanding of the structural and electronic properties of a combined system, cellulose/functional element. In this work, we present a theoretical study of the nanocellulose/graphene interfaces (nCL/G) based on first-principles calculations. We find that the binding energies of both hydrophobic/G (nCL^phob/G) and hydrophilic/G (nCL^phil/G) interfaces are primarily dictated by the van der Waals interactions, and are comparable with those of their 2D interface counterparts. We verify that the energetic preference of nCL^phob/G has been reinforced by the inclusion of an aqueous medium via an implicit solvation model. Further structural characterization was carried out using a set of simulations of the carbon K-edge X-ray absorption spectra to identify and distinguish the key absorption features of the nCL^phob/G and nCL^phil/G interfaces. The electronic structure calculations reveal that the linear energy bands of graphene lie in the band gap of the nCL sheet, while depletion/accumulation charge density regions are observed. We show that external agents, i.e., electric field and mechanical strain, allow for tunability of the Dirac cone and charge density at the interface. The control/maintenance of the Dirac cone states in nCL/G is an important feature for the development of electronic devices based on cellulosic platforms.

Recent Progress in Modification Strategies of Nanocellulose-Based Aerogels for Oil Absorption Application

Oil spills and oily wastewater have become a major environmental problem in recent years, directly impacting the environment and biodiversity. Several techniques have been developed to solve this problem, including biological degradation, chemicals, controlled burning, physical absorption and membrane separation. Recently, biopolymeric aerogels have been proposed as a green solution for this problem, and they possess superior selective oil absorption capacity compared with other approaches. Several modification strategies have been applied to nanocellulose-based aerogel to enhance its poor hydrophobicity, increase its oil absorption capacity, improve its selectivity of oils and make it a compressible and elastic magnetically responsive aerogel, which will ease its recovery after use. This review presents an introduction to nanocellulose-based aerogel and its fabrication approaches. Different applications of nanocellulose aerogel in environmental, medical and industrial fields are presented. Different strategies for the modification of nanocellulose-based aerogel are critically discussed in this review, presenting the most recent works in terms of enhancing the aerogel performance in oil absorption in addition to the potential of these materials in near future.