Please consider attending the following: MATERIALS ENGINEERING SEMINAR "Large Scale Processing of Mechanically Fibrillated Cellulose Nanofiber (CNF) Films" By Sami M. El Awad Azrak Purdue MSE Ph.D. Preliminary Exam Advisor: Professor Jeffrey P. Youngblood ABSTRACT Driven by the invention of the first semi- and fully- synthetic polymers by John Wesley (1869) and Leo Baekeland (1907), and the need to preserve precious natural resources during World War II (1935), man-made polymer products have become vital components of our daily lives. Out of the many possible end products; polymeric films, sheets, and porous fabrics have seen large use in the packaging industry ($198 billion globally) and textile industry ($17 billion in the USA). In order to meet the current demand for synthetic polymer products (335 million metric tons of raw polymers produced in 2016) innovative large scale processing techniques have been developed. Some of the popular techniques used to process common engineering polymers (PE, PP, PET, etc.) into films and sheets include; extrusion, film blowing, melt/sheet casting, and calendaring. All of which take advantage of the formability and flowability of these polymers when heated above their glass and melting temperatures as well as the shear thickening or thinning behavior of the melt. Other techniques like carding, spunbonding, and the papermaking process are used to create bonded porous fabrics, also known as nonwovens, from man-made polymer fibers (Tencel, PP, PE, PET, PTT, Nylon 6,6) or naturally made fibers like cellulose. Yet, with an ever increasing need to replace and reduce the dependency on oil sourced polymers, degradable and sustainable polymers will need to be processed into similar useable forms. Additionally, these bio-friendly products will need to perform equally well or outperform common engineering polymers. Fibrillated cellulose, also known as microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) or cellulose nanofibers (CNF), is a perfect candidate to be processed into films due to its abundancy and sustainability. Furthermore, it has been shown that films produced from differently treated versions of MFC material have exceptional mechanical and optical properties which rival and surpass those found in common engineering polymers and even some metals like steel when considering its low density (~1.6 g/cm). Though extremely promising, the processing of CNF into films has lagged behind other polymers in industry. Techniques found in literature that can directly process this material remain largely semiautomatic and have very long lead times (from an hour to a couple of weeks). In order to further the efforts and help elucidate the processing of this novel material, common polymer processing techniques will be reviewed, as well as those used for nonwoven fabrics and the papermaking process. A comparison will be made between these techniques and those used to process pure CNF films. The challenges of processing CNF with current industrial techniques will be brought up and possible solutions will be proposed. Pilot scale plants that have successfully produced self-standing films will also be mentioned. Additionally, important parameters that affect the overall mechanical performance of CNF films will be discussed. Date: Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 Time: 1:30 P.M. Place: ARMS 1028