Document Type

Honors Thesis

Major

Biomedical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Michael Mason

Committee Members

David Neivandt, Rosemary Smith, Mehdi Tajvadi, Sharon Tisher

Graduation Year

May 2021

Publication Date

Spring 5-2021

Abstract

Cellulose is a strong, readily available biologically sourced polymer with a wide potential for applications in many fields. Its high degree of biodegradability makes it an excellent candidate for environmentally friendly sensors, but it is necessary to devise a method by which to render it conductive. Silver nanowires are highly conductive nanoparticles with many potential applications in sensing, as well as being on a similar order-of-magnitude in size as cellulose derivatives, which makes them a prime candidate for use in this application. Methods of casting cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), and TEMPO-Oxidized CNF (TEMPO CNF) films were explored, and the resulting products were treated with silver nanowires by both surface deposition and homogenization to develop conductive films. It was found that the results of this process had low sheet resistances, beneficial for use in this application.

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