Credit: University of Chicago
UChicago researchers discovered a way to extract cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from Miscanthus x. Giganteus, a fast-growing grass. CNCs have many promising applications in materials synthesis, green catalysis, biosensing and more. Building on UChicago’s work, Argonne researchers invented an optimized process and scaled it up to a level that is suitable for large-scale production.