3 Processing of non-all-wood cellulose-based composites

Abstract

This chapter reviews the recent advances in non-all-wood cellulose-based composites, as well as the recent efforts on wood cellulose-based elastomers, hydrogel, resins, and their functional utilization. The chapter divides the wood cellulose-based composites into all-cellulose composites and non-all-cellulose composites. All-cellulose composites are those in which both the fibers and matrix are cellulose, while the nonall- cellulose composites are prepared by blending cellulose with petroleum-based or other bio-based matrix or by chemical modification. Among these chemical modification methods, grafting modification as a robust technique has been widely used for the preparation of well-defined cellulose composites. Under optimized processing conditions, the mechanical and thermal properties of the cellulose fibers in these non-allwood fiber-based composites can be retained. Additionally, besides the traditional application, recent efforts in the fabrication of cellulose-based composites applications in photothermal conversion and wearable sensing devices are also highlighted.