BPI Seminar by Dr. Steve Eichhorn

Modifying Cellulose to Make Self-Healing Composite Films (and Other Things)

Location: CHBE #202, 2360 East Mall Vancouver BC V6T 1Z4

Agenda

• 12:00 PM Introduction by Dr. Johan Foster
• 12:05 PM Presentation by Dr. Stephen Eichhorn, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Bristol
• 12:45 PM Q&A

*Sandwiches and coffee will be provided from 11:45 AM.

Abstract 

This talk will cover the modifying of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) to make octylamine functionalised materials that retain their charge and so can be both be dispersed in water, and yet have some meaningful and demonstrably enhanced interaction with other materials e.g. thermoplastic materials polymers, starch. The modification allows the production of strong gels, with high yield stresses, and the gelation and interaction with other polysaccharides (e.g. xanthan, LBG). It will be shown that cystamine modifications are possible using a similar approach, which enables self-healing Pickering emulsion gels to be produced. This can be further extended to make a self-healing system with an in situ polymerised polyvinyl acetate system, opening up the potential for other polymeric systems to be explored. Finally, the octylamine modified CNCs are demonstrated to have beneficial properties to triboelectric nanogenerators, combining other polymers with graphene. These devices could be used in sustainable textiles, and these possibilities are further explored.

About the Speaker

Professor Steve Eichhorn graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Leeds in 1993. He then went on to do a Master’s degree and PhD (1995-1998) at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in the Paper Science Department. Following that he carried out postdoctoral research under the supervision of Professor Bob Young FRS in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (1999-2002). He was hired as a new lecturer in 2002 in the Materials Science department, which then became the School of Materials in 2004 when UMIST merged with the Victoria University of Manchester. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Reader and then went to become Chair of Materials Science at the University of Exeter in 2011. At Exeter he built an activity around sustainable materials research, and also took on leadership roles as a co-Director of an EPSRC funded doctoral training centre and he was the Head of Engineering (from 2014-2017). In September 2017 he moved to the University of Bristol and into the newly formed Bristol Composites Institute, and was interim Head of School (for the CAME School of Engineering) in 2020. He has been awarded the Rosenhain Medal and Prize in 2012 from the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3) for his contributions to Materials Science, the Hayashi Jisuke prize from the Japanese Cellulose Society (in 2017), the Swinburne Medal and Prize (IOM3) in 2020, and was the Chair of the ACS’s Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division.

In 2021 he was awarded an EPSRC ED&I fellowship on Biobased Composites. The ED&I programme of work has a specific emphasis on Black and Black heritage staff and students.

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