Atte Lepistö: Advanced NMR of Anisotropic Cellulose Nanofiber Aerogels

Modern global challenges, such as climate change and resource scarcity, have increased the demand for sustainable bio-based materials. Among these materials, aerogels are particularly attractive due to their ultralight structure, high porosity which allow wide range of applications, including thermal insulation, filtration, and biomedical scaffolds. Cellulose nanofiber (CNF)-based aerogels offer additional advantages over conventional silica or inorganic aerogels, including improved sustainability, tunability, and mechanical flexibility.

Although the characterization of aerogels is well established, many conventional techniques suffer from limitations such as invasiveness and narrow field of view. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods provide a non-invasive alternative capable of delivering rich structural and performance-related information about porous materials, including structural information and interactions within the porous matrix through the whole sample. Such information is particularly relevant for applications related to filtration and thermal energy management and insulation (TEMI).

This project aims to develop sensitive, efficient, and information-rich NMR methodologies for the characterization of nanostructured cellulose materials and for evaluating the performance of CNF-based aerogels in moisture collection applications. The applied methods include ultrafast Laplace NMR, restricted diffusion NMR, MRI imaging, T2 relaxation analysis, and NMR cryoporometry, enabling detailed investigation of pore structure, molecular mobility, and transport phenomena in anisotropic cellulose aerogels.