Super paper

[Arrow]

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14084-new-superpaper-is-stronger-than-cast-iron.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

"...produced from a biological material found in conventional paper...The end result is undamaged cellulose fibres suspended in water. When the water is drained away Berglund found that the fibres join together into networks held by hydrogen bonds, forming flat sheets of "nanopaper"...Mechanical testing shows it has a tensile strength of 214 megapascals, making it stronger than cast iron (130 MPa)..."A regular paper network has fibres 30 micrometres in diameter, here we are at a scale three orders of magnitude smaller,"

[ironman]

Hi, If it's made with wood pulp, which it is, it's not archival of no use to artists.
Nothing's worse than having your good drawings on non archival paper turn brown and brittle in your lifetime.
Have a great day,
Jeff

[WeiMingKai]

It was misleading for new Scientist to really refer to this 'breakthrough' as 'nanopaper' - it is a stronger and better cellophane, not exactly 'paper'. What do artists use cellophane for, can anyone help me out here because I can't think anything beyond wrapping something up?

Sticking the word 'nano' and 'paper' together may be technically accurate/sound cool but it is a bit misleading to the everyday person whose mind will see the word 'paper' and associate that with what they think of as paper. Paper mache and Methylcellulose (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylcellulose) (wallpaper paste, other stuff...) are some of my favorite 'cellulose' related substances but they are not affected by this nanopaper breakthrough.

That this researcher did find a newer, better way to disassemble pulp into longer 'undamaged' cellulose molecules that somehow provide better strength for the end product once the water is removed is interesting. My first thought was that the watery cellulose 'slurry' could be used like slip casting clay in plaster molds, or else semi-dried into a paste/goop and then injection/vacuum molded like plastic and that might be interesting - but nobody talks about that in the article. They made cellophane = whoopdeedoo!

re: wood pulp = rot = no use for artists. Maybe they could treat/coat it with chemicals to prevent/retard attack from wood eating microbes? They do that already with treated lumber and other archive grade paper.

[fritchie]

Cellulose and cellophane are two different materials. The original article is fully correct in calling this material cellulose. I've forgotten just how cellophane is made; guess I or someone else may have to Google or Wiki. That was at least one of the original inspirations, if not the first, for modern plastics.

[Arrow]

http://technology.newscientist.com/c...ine-news_rss20
nanopaper: "The end result is undamaged cellulose fibres suspended in water."

Cellulose Nanopaper: American Chemical Society
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/sample.cgi/bomaf6/2008/9/i06/html/bm800038n.html




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellophane

"Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose...dissolved in alkali and carbon disulfide to make a solution called viscose, which is then extruded through a slit into an acid bath to reconvert the viscose into cellulose."

[fritchie]

Thanks, Arrow, for the Wiki material. Now I can quote my Webster's, which says this alkali - carbon disulfide material also extrudes to produce rayon thread, the first really practical synthetic.