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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Direct Polymer Grafting As A Method Of Maintaining The Mechanical Properties Of Cellulose Nanocrystals In The Presence Of Moisture, Mary Elizabeth Breen-Lyles
Direct Polymer Grafting As A Method Of Maintaining The Mechanical Properties Of Cellulose Nanocrystals In The Presence Of Moisture, Mary Elizabeth Breen-Lyles
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are a distinctive nanomaterial derived from cellulose, the most abundant natural polymer on Earth, and the primary reinforcing structural component of cellulose fibrils found within the plant cell wall. These nanocrystals exhibit mechanical properties comparable to synthetic aramid fibers but are advantageous as they are biodegradable, renewable, and can be produced sustainably as they are predominantly extracted from naturally occurring cellulosic materials. These qualities make it a sustainable, highly renewable and environmentally friendly material to be used in place of synthetic materials in a variety of applications. With their high surface area to volume ratio, low level …
Hard-Sphere-Like Dynamics In Highly Concentrated Alpha-Crystallin Suspensions, Preeti Vodnala, Laurence Lurio, Michael C. Vega, Elizabeth Gaillard
Hard-Sphere-Like Dynamics In Highly Concentrated Alpha-Crystallin Suspensions, Preeti Vodnala, Laurence Lurio, Michael C. Vega, Elizabeth Gaillard
Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications
The dynamics of concentrated suspensions of the eye-lens protein alpha crystallin have been measured using x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. Measurements were made at wave vectors corresponding to the first peak in the hard-sphere structure factor and volume fractions close to the critical volume fraction for the glass transition. Langevin dynamics simulations were also performed in parallel to the experiments. The intermediate scattering function f(q,τ) could be fit using a stretched exponential decay for both experiments and numerical simulations. The measured relaxation times show good agreement with simulations for polydisperse hard-sphere colloids.