Wood Pulp Extract Stronger Than Kevlar

[Ben]

I found this interesting. A wood pulp extract that is stronger than carbon fiber or Kevlar.  It appears its arch-nemesis is water. Though I would think for some applications you could apply some kind of laminate to waterproof the stuff and still keep the costs reasonable. Like, I don't know - maybe bullet resistant house siding. :)

http://www.gizmag.com/cellulose-nanocrystals-stronger-carbon-fiber-kevlar/23959/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=d4523abc7f-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

[roo_ster]

CNCs have been studied for many years in Canada and are already produced at the ton scale in a pilot plant. Wonderful product. Its affinity with water is not a problem since it is easy to fluorinate or acetylate the surface. This modification, contrarily to what is pretended in this article, does not alter the properties of the CNCs since the reaction is limited to the surface of the product and the vast majority of the CNC remains unaltered (of course, if it is in a very fine powder form, then it's different).

A comment.