Disordered Cellulose-based Nanostructures for Enhanced Light-scattering
Published version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Caixeiro, S
Peruzzo, M
Onelli, OD
Vignolini, Silvia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0664-1418
Sapienza, R
Abstract
Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth. Cellulose fibers, such as the one extracted form cotton or woodpulp, have been used by humankind for hundreds of years to make textiles and paper. Here we show how, by engineering light-matter interaction, we can optimize light scattering using exclusively cellulose nanocrystals. The produced material is sustainable, biocompatible, and when compared to ordinary microfiber-based paper, it shows enhanced scattering strength (×4), yielding a transport mean free path as low as 3.5 μm in the visible light range. The experimental results are in a good agreement with the theoretical predictions obtained with a diffusive model for light propagation.
Description
Keywords
physics.optics, physics.optics, cond-mat.soft
Journal Title
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
1944-8244
1944-8252
1944-8252
Volume Title
9
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Publisher DOI
Sponsorship
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K014617/1)
European Research Council (639088)
European Research Council (639088)
This research was funded by the EPSRC (EP/M027961/1), the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2014-238), Royal Society (RG140457), the BBSRC David Phillips fellowship (BB/K014617/1), and the European Research Council (ERC-2014-STG H2020 639088).