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Wood is a wonderful
material and a renewable resource that has been – and still
is
– of enormous significance to mankind. For instance, consider
the
importance paper has in the dispersion of knowledge to everyone and not
only to a wealthy few. Paper is a 2000 year old invention, however
modern paper production, based on the
decomposition of wood into its individual fibres, started for about 150
years ago. Now, there is a large
interest in decomposing the fibres into its building blocks; the
microfibrils. This is also the main focus of my research.
Microfibrillar cellulose (MFC) is composed of bundles of cellulose
molecules arranged in parallel in crystalline and amorphous regions.
These very strong and small scaled fibrils may be utilized in new
products and open up possibilities that may not yet been foreseen. Just
like the researchers did 150 years ago, we are probably facing the next
step in the development and utilization of the wood’s
building
blocks. My work will hopefully be a contribution to this development
and I feel grateful for being a part of this research tradition.
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