The Exilva Blog

Dr. Julien Bras from the Grenoble Institute of Techonology has been working in the field of cellulose fibrils, nanocellulose and microfibrillated cellulose for two decades. He is considered as one of the pioneers on the concept as we know it today. In this 5 minutes chat with Dr. Bras, we touched upon several topics regarding this new material. Do not miss out on the opportunity to listen in to Dr, Bras ideas one some of the directions the cellulose fibrils and nanocellulose will be taking in the future. 

Cellulose fibrils has been present in the academic sector since the 1980’s, but it is completely newborn in a commercial sense. I experience from time to time that the mix up between cellulose fibrils and soluble cellulose (polymers) can create issues in understanding the full potential of the fibrils within a formulation. In this blog post I will try to give you a brief overview of why cellulose fibrils is quite different from the other types of cellulose products as you have learned to know them.

Within the field of nanocellulose and cellulose fibrils, there is an increasingly rapid pace of new developments, where the cellulose fibrils either appear on its own or as a part of an advanced relationship between several performance enhancers. Today I have collected two highly interesting, but very separate news articles for you, but where the common denominator is the ability to retrieve strength and performance from these types of materials. Enjoy!

Another episode of Topic Tuesday where we break down the rheological profile of cellulose fibrils under certain conditions. This week we will show you the robustness of your product's rheology profile under different temperatures when using cellulose fibrils.

This week’s blog post started its life when I attended a stakeholder forum which was organized by the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBIJU), a part of the EU H2020 initiative. I listened to a high number of innovators within several fields such as bio-fuels, bio-chemicals, as well as new and more sustainable materials. I started a line of thought, where the word paradigm occurred to me; I am part of a generation raised in the latter part of the 20th century where a majority of things we take for granted are based on technologies from the petroleum sector. The paradigm has given opportunities and challenges, but how does this paradigm affect us and our thoughts on innovation?

This weeks topic is a follow-up from our last Topic Tuesday. Then we talked about the shear thinning properties of cellulose fibrils. Now, we show you the recovery effect and properties - the thixotropy - of the cellulose fibrils back to its original viscosity. With practical examples! 

Yet another year in the name of innovating with cellulose fibrils has gone by. And again we are thrilled over the engagement and response our readers has shown and given us.  As we continue to learn more on these amazing fibrils, we will make sure you are the first to know, also in 2018. While waiting, here are the top 10 most read blog posts in 2017. 

I stumbled over an article the other day, grasping the opportunity that’s emerging in relation to making electronics based on cellulose sources. The world around us is in an exponential pace making innovations in electronics. So I asked myself the question after reading the article I in this blog post will refer to: can we make smarter electronics with paper-based versions?

Shear thinning and the viscosity as a function of shear rate is a key parameter to control in products like for example water-based paint & coatings. Paint & Coating systems are often non-newtonian and the control of the shear thinning behavior is critical to avoid problems with sagging and leveling. Rheology additives like HEUR, HASE and Nanocellulose are often use to bring increased shear thinning performance and control to the paint & coating systems. In this Topic Tuesday, we are providing you with some more general information on how the shear thinning from nanocellulose works and how you can use it to improve the rheological performance from your products.