Cellulose, the main building block of plant cell walls, could be the secret ingredient to better ice cream, cars, construction materials and more.
Cellulose is all around us. The main building block of plant cell walls, it’s nature’s most abundant polymer. It makes up about 90 percent of cotton and 50 percent of wood. Today, cellulose is used to make clothes, cardboard, coffee filters and countless other everyday items. But scientists are coming up with creative new uses for the substance. Here are just a few things that could be made better with a bit of cellulose:
Ice cream: Ice cream comes with a time limit. Eat it too slowly, and you’re slurping soup. But a dash of cellulose could help people savor ice cream for longer. Cellulose molecules expand as they dissolve in water. So, adding cellulose to food can make it thicker. In one experiment, mixing cellulose from banana stalks into ice cream helped it melt more slowly. Cellulose could also keep ice crystals from growing inside ice cream while stored in the freezer. This could keep frozen treats from turning gritty.
Cars: Cellulose gives plant stems and tree branches their strength and structure. Some engineers want to use that sturdiness to build stronger materials for cars and other products. And one team used tiny crystals of cellulose to make a material as hard and tough as bone. Such strong stuff could someday replace pollutive, plastic-based materials.
Glitter: Glitter isn’t just hard to clean up around the house. It dirties the environment. That’s because glitter is often made from toxic compounds or microplastics. But a new glitter made of cellulose could be nontoxic and biodegradable. In the new material, tiny cellulose fibers are arranged in structures like spiral staircases. Those spirals reflect different wavelengths of light, creating structural colors. Bits of that glitz could be added to makeup, paints and packaging.
Coolers and coffee cups: Cellulose may be the secret ingredient to greener foams, too. Styrofoam is a lightweight but sturdy insulator. That has made it useful for protecting packages during shipping. Styrofoam is also used to make coolers, coffee cups and other containers that need to keep heat in or out. But Styrofoam is made of plastic. Now, researchers have shown that a cellulose foam is a promising alternative. It’s just as strong as Styrofoam and a better insulator. Best yet, it’s biodegradable.
Martian architecture: No one has ever set foot on Mars. But some scientists are already planning for a Red Planet settlement. Since it would be impractical to haul construction materials from Earth, one idea is to build using Martian soil. One group recently showed that mixing fake Martian soil with cellulose created an “ink” that could be 3-D printed into buildings. Such a setup could make construction on Mars easier and literally dirt cheap.
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Cellulose may keep ice cream from turning gritty in your freezer Adding nanocrystals extracted from wood avoids the growth of ice crystals, keeping your treat smooth and creamy. (5/4/2021) Readability: 6.8
This glitter gets its color from plants, not a synthetic plastic In the new material, tiny arrangements of cellulose reflect light in specific ways to create vibrant hues in an environmentally friendly glitter. (12/20/2021) Readability: 7.0
‘Frozen smoke’ could protect electronics from annoying static A fluffy material made from cellulose nanofibers and silver nanowires can protect electronic devices from disrupting interference. (10/28/2020) Readability: 7.9
Engineers borrow a tree’s cellulose to toughen new materials
How popcorn got its pop
Banana plant extract can slow how fast ice cream melts
How to make window ‘glass’ from wood
A soil-based ‘concrete’ could make buildings green, even on Mars
Trees may become the key to ‘greener’ foam products
Cellulose can do more for ice cream than just keep it from melting or getting grainy. Adding a modified type of cellulose, called methyl cellulose, to the recipe can create hot ice cream. It’s a bizarre twist on the treat that is solid when hot but melts as it cools to room temperature. In this experiment from Science Buddies, make your own hot ice cream and see how adding more methyl cellulose changes how it melts.
3-D: Short for three-dimensional. This term is an adjective for something that has features that can be described in three dimensions — height, width and length.
biodegradable: Adjective for something that is able to break down into simpler materials, based on the activity of microbes. This usually occurs in the presence of water, sunlight or other conditions that help nurture those organisms.
cell: (in biology) The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the unaided eye, it consists of a watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Depending on their size, animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells. Most organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell. (in telecommunications) A technology that relies on a large number of base stations to relay signals. Each base station covers only a small area, which is known as a cell. Phones that rely on this system are typically referred to as cell phones.
cellulose: A type of fiber found in plant cell walls. It is formed by chains of glucose molecules.
compound: (often used as a synonym for chemical) A compound is a substance formed when two or more chemical elements unite (bond) in fixed proportions. For example, water is a compound made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Its chemical symbol is H2O.
crystal: (adj. crystalline) A solid consisting of a symmetrical, ordered, three-dimensional arrangement of atoms or molecules. It’s the organized structure taken by most minerals. Apatite, for example, forms six-sided crystals. The mineral crystals that make up rock are usually too small to be seen with the unaided eye.
dissolve: To turn a solid into a liquid and disperse it into that starting liquid. (For instance, sugar or salt crystals, which are solids, will dissolve into water. Now the crystals are gone and the solution is a fully dispersed mix of the liquid form of the sugar or salt in water.)
electronics: Devices that are powered by electricity but whose properties are controlled by the semiconductors or other circuitry that channel or gate the movement of electric charges.
engineer: A person who uses science to solve problems. As a verb, to engineer means to design a device, material or process that will solve some problem or unmet need. (v.) To perform these tasks, or the name for a person who performs such tasks.
environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).
extract: (v.) To separate one chemical (or component of something) from a complex mix. (noun) A substance, often in concentrated form, that has been removed from some source material. Extracts are often taken from plants (such as spearmint or lavender), flowers and buds (such as roses and cloves), fruit (such as lemons and oranges) or seeds and nuts (such as almonds and pistachios). Such extracts, sometimes used in cooking, often have very strong scents or flavors.
fiber: Something whose shape resembles a thread or filament. (in nutrition) Components of many fibrous plant-based foods. These so-called non-digestible fibers tend to come from cellulose, lignin, and pectin — all plant constituents that resist breakdown by the body’s digestive enzymes.
green: (in chemistry and environmental science) An adjective to describe products and processes that will pose little or no harm to living things or the environment.
hue: A color or shade of some color.
insulator: A substance or device that does not readily conduct electricity.
Mars: The fourth planet from the sun, just one planet out from Earth. Like Earth, it has seasons and moisture. But its diameter is only about half as big as Earth’s.
microplastic: A small piece of plastic, 5 millimeters (0.2 inch) or smaller in size. Microplastics may have been produced at that small size, or their size may be the result of the breakdown of water bottles, plastic bags or other things that started out larger.
molecule: An electrically neutral group of atoms that represents the smallest possible amount of a chemical compound. Molecules can be made of single types of atoms or of different types. For example, the oxygen in the air is made of two oxygen atoms (O2), but water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H2O).
nanowire: A wire or rod on the order of a billionth of a meter in cross-section or in circumference. It is usually made from some type of semiconducting material. However some bacteria make string-like anchoring structures on the same size scale. Like the semiconductor wire, the bacterial ones also can transport electrons.
planet: A large celestial object that orbits a star but unlike a star does not generate any visible light.
plastic: Any of a series of materials that are easily deformable; or synthetic materials that have been made from polymers (long strings of some building-block molecule) that tend to be lightweight, inexpensive and resistant to degradation. (adj.) A material that is able to adapt by changing shape or possibly even changing its function.
polymer: A substance made from long chains of repeating groups of atoms. Manufactured polymers include nylon, polyvinyl chloride (better known as PVC) and many types of plastics. Natural polymers include rubber, silk and cellulose (found in plants and used to make paper, for example).
pulp: The fibrous inner part of a vegetable or fruit (such as an orange).
Red Planet: A nickname for Mars.
solid: Firm and stable in shape; not liquid or gaseous.
Styrofoam: A trademarked name for a type of rigid foam made from light-weight polystyrene plastic. It is used for everything from home craft projects to decorative ornaments and building insulation.
synthetic: An adjective that describes something that did not arise naturally, but was instead created by people. Many synthetic materials have been developed to stand in for natural materials, such as synthetic rubber, synthetic diamond or a synthetic hormone. Some may even have a chemical makeup and structure identical to the original.
toxic: Poisonous or able to harm or kill cells, tissues or whole organisms. The measure of risk posed by such a poison is its toxicity.
wavelength: The distance between one peak and the next in a series of waves, or the distance between one trough and the next. It’s also one of the “yardsticks” used to measure radiation. Visible light — which, like all electromagnetic radiation, travels in waves — includes wavelengths between about 380 nanometers (violet) and about 740 nanometers (red). Radiation with wavelengths shorter than visible light includes gamma rays, X-rays and ultraviolet light. Longer-wavelength radiation includes infrared light, microwaves and radio waves.
Maria Temming is the assistant editor at Science News for Students. She has bachelor's degrees in physics and English, and a master's in science writing.
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