Cellulose based nanomaterials: The future of material science from natural products

Bio-nanomaterials have been a revelation in the field of nanotechnology giving a pollution free option for most of the applications. Imitation of the nature paves way for most of the modern inventions. So too the biopolymers and bionanomaterials which are showing encouraging signs for the future of material science. Cellulose being a vastly available biopolymer and having the provision of modification, it provides room for usage in many fields.

Cellulose was extracted from coconut husk by soda pulp method and modified to cellulose acetate by acetylation. Cellulose nano-crystals were synthesized by acid-hydrolysis method. Structural elucidation is done by FT-IR analysis and their thermal properties were studied by TGA/DTA analysis. TEM images confirm the nano-crystals to be in nano-scale.

Ginil Mon (37 yrs.) a chemist who has specialized in Polymer Chemistry got his doctorate for his thesis “Thermal And Mechanical Characteristics of Novel Peroxide-Cured Ethylene Propylene Diene Terpolymer-Neoprene Composite Films with Clay/Graphite Fillers” from the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University. His paper presented in Indraprastha International Conclave on Nano Science and Technology, New Delhi during November 16-17, 2010 was adjudged the best. He has ten publications to his credit with total impact factor 13.464, 75 citations, h-index 4 and i10-index 4. An International Resource Person in diverse topics including Environment and ICT, he is working in Nanotechnology, Polymer Nanocomposites, Spectroscopy and Molecular Docking. A fellow of Indian Science Congress, member of editorial board for journals, he is also reviewer in five international journals which includes Elsevier journals too. Being an organizing committee member of many international conferences notably in Sanyo, China and Singapore, he has been an invited speaker in eight national and four international conferences including one at Singapore. Currently he is teaching in the Department of Chemistry and Research, Nesamony Memorial Christian College, Marthandam near Cape Commorin.