Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are promising building blocks for water purification due to their high surface area, tuneability of surface charge and grafting of surface groups depending on the pollutants. In this report we have converted CNCs into photocatalysts, without altering the surface groups, byin situgrowth of TiO(2)nanorods (NRs) and functionalization with Au nanocrystals (NCs) for enhanced light absorption. The control of the density of the NRs assures that the CNC surface and functionalities are accessible for the pollutant, followed by the photocatalytic degradation on the light absorption layer under solar illumination. This seed-mediated NR synthesis can be applied to realize a series of CNC-inorganic NR photocatalysts. The low temperature (90 degrees C compared to commonly reported growth at 150 degrees C) of the NR growth provides the opportunity to use nanostructured biopolymers as functional substrates for preparation of photocatalysts using a bio-inspired design.

Cellulose acetate (CA) fibers were electrospun on a mesh template to create specific surface and pore structures for membrane applications. The mesh template CA fiber mats were impregnated with cellulose nanocrystals at varying weight percentages. The membranes showed nanotextured surfaces and improved mechanical properties post impregnation. More importantly, the hydrophilicity of the original CA fibers was increased from a hydrophobic contact angle of 102 degrees-0 degrees thereby creating an anti-fouling membrane surface structure. The membranes showed rejection of 20-56% for particles of 0.5-2.0 mu m, indicating potential of these membranes in rejecting microorganisms from water. Furthermore, high rejection of dyes (80-99%) by adsorption and potential application as highly functional affinity membranes was demonstrated. These membranes can therefore be utilized as all-cellulose, green, scalable and low cost high flux membranes (> 20,000 LMH) for water cleaning applications in food industry where microorganisms and charged contaminants are to be removed.

Porous and non-porous cellulose acetate (CA) - cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) electrospun nanocomposite fibers and electrosprayed-electrospun composite membranes were fabricated using two different binary solvent systems. To evaluate the expression of CNC as the active entity in the membrane, dye adsorption studies were carried out using Victoria Blue. To overcome the low surface area of thick porous fibers, a porous electrosprayed-electrospun composite has developed which exhibited 98% dye removal compared to non-porous counterparts (67.9%). The porous membrane with CNC showed an increase of 38 mV in surface zeta potential compared to 9 mV increases in the case of the nonporous membrane and after the dye adsorption, it maintained the negative charge, indicating that further adsorption is feasible. Moreover, the mechanical properties of porous fibers were found to be ten-fold better than that of nonporous fibers. Creating porous CA-CNC composites is demonstrated as a tool for ensuring better exposure of active materials during the adsorption reaction.