Pascal Bertsch
PhD Thesis "Self-Assembly and Aggregation of Nanocellulosesinto Functional 3D Soft Materials and at 2D Fluid Interfaces"
Nanocrystalline Cellulose (NCC) is a food-grade renewable nanomaterial gained from wood pulp. It has recently attracted attention due to its ability to stabilize O/W emulsions (Figure 1). Resulting emulsions reveal exceptional stability due to electrostatic and steric repulsion.
Despite the interest in NCC interfacial stabilization the driving force of adsorption and stabilization mechanism are not fully clear yet. This project aims at elucidating the underlying phenomena of NCC interfacial film formation combining interfacial rheology, thin film analyses, and optical methods.
Published Papers (Selection)
Bertsch, P. and Fischer, P. Adsorption and Interfacial Structure of Nanocelluloses at Fluid Interfaces. Adv. Colloid Interface Sci., 2020, 276, 102089
Bertsch, P.; Schneider, L.; Bovone, G.; Tibbitt, M. W.; Fischer, P.; Gstöhl, S. Injectable Biocompatible Hydrogels from Cellulose Nanocrystals for Locally Targeted Sustained Drug Release. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2019, 11 (42), 38578-38585.
Bertsch, P.; Thoma, A.; Bergfreund, J.; Geue, T.; Fischer, P. Transient Measurement and Structure Analysis of Protein–Polysaccharide Multilayers at Fluid Interfaces. Soft Matter, 2019, 15 (31), 6362–6368.
Bertsch, P. and Fischer, P. Interfacial Rheology of Charged Anisotropic Cellulose Nanocrystals at the Air–Water Interface. Langmuir, 2019, 35 (24), 7937–7943.
Bertsch, P.; Diener, M.; Adamcik, J.; Scheuble, N.; Geue, T.; Mezzenga, R.; Fischer, P. Adsorption and Interfacial Layer Structure of Unmodified Nanocrystalline Cellulose at Air/Water Interfaces. Langmuir, 2018, 34 (50), 15195–15202.
Bertsch, P.; Isabettini, S.; Fischer, P. Ion-Induced Hydrogel Formation and NematicOrdering of Nanocrystalline Cellulose Suspensions, Biomacromolecules, 2017, 18(12), 4060–4066.