Symposium SB03-Wood Nanoscience, Nanoengineering and Materials

Wood is the most extensively used biological material ascribing to its nature-designed hierarchical structure. Within the concept of the circular bioeconomy, many new opportunities are being uncovered considering a sustainable society while simultaneously lowering the net carbon footprint. Wood and derived materials are accessed as suitable solutions to fulfill the needs of a range of technologies beyond traditional applications. There are grand challenges in the fundamental research to bring wood and wood-based materials closer to a fossil-free future, many of which relate to the fractionation, handling and processing in ways that diverge from practices that are currently applied. Tailoring the nanostructure and resultant properties of wood, for instance, in the design of advanced materials demands new approaches and fundamental understanding beyond the existing ones. On top of that, novel devices with both excellent functionality and mechanical flexibility call for system-level integration. Finally, efficient use and increase of wood resources will secure the circularity of the bioeconomy if green and energy-efficient processing and recycling/recovery/reuse is ensured.

This symposium aims to bring together scientists and engineers from diverse and multidisciplinary fields with a strong interest in wood and wood-derived materials science and related fields. We provide a forum to communicate recent achievements, to exchange the latest knowledge, and discuss the possibilities of implanting wood and wood-derived materials for advanced materials and systems towards a real sustainable bioeconomy.

Topics will include:

Fundamental science of wood: Formation, Nanostructure understanding and multi-scale modeling, chemical, mechanical, thermal, acoustic, and optical properties, interaction with water/moisture, diffusion, etc.
Nanocellulose, lignin, hemicellulose, and their functional structures: Characterizing cellulosic materials, lignin, hemicellulose, and hierarchical structures, multifunctional composites, functionalization, lightweight and strong composites, transparent substrates, magnetic nanostructures, 3D aerogel, hydrogel.
Wood nanoengineering: Wood nanostructural control, functional materials design, composite materials, biorefinery (chemicals, biofuel), nanomanufacturing.
Electronics: Flexible and printed electronics, optoelectronics, actuators, liquid crystals, and displays, piezo electronics.
Bioengineering: Microfluidics, Biosensors, cellulose plasmonics and nanofluidics, bioactive materials, biomedical.
Energy management: Solar cells, batteries, power generators, novel carbon and fuel cells, flexible energy storage, water splitting, energy storage, thermal insulation.
Water treatment: Water purification, solar water evaporation, water oil separation, metal ion adsorption.
Other Emerging applications: Smart materials, emerging membranes.
Circularity: Green chemistry, energy-efficient processing, recycling, circular economy, resources increase and efficient use.

Invited Speakers:

Federico Bella (Politecnico di Torino, Italy)
Bernard Cathala (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France)
Reverant Crispin (Linköping University, Sweden)
Feng Jiang (The University of British Columbia, Canada)
Martin Lawoko (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)
Anna Loromaine (Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona, Spain)
Shuangxi Nie (Guangxi University, China)
Tiina Nypelö (Aalto University, Finland)
Hugh O'Neill (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)
Pedro Sarmento (The Navigator Company, Portugal)
Gilberto Siqueira (Empa–Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Switzerland)
Emil Thybring (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Xiaoqing Wang (Chinese Academy of Forestry, China)
Lining Yao (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Yao Yuan (Yale University, USA)
Hongli Zhu (Northeastern University, USA)
Junyong Zhu (United States Department of Agriculture, USA)