Technology
CELLULOSE PARTICLE SURFACTANTS
Introducing NaturDots™
NaturDots are a ground-breaking, bio-sourced, biodegradable surfactant made from cheap, plentiful and sustainable wood pulp.
Wood pulp is almost pure cellulose, made from weak or oddly-shaped wood rejected by the sustainable timber industry.
NaturDots™ are novel particle surfactants.
Traditional surfactants are molecules (chemical compounds), but NaturDots are cellulose particles around 0.2 microns across.
NaturDots are thousands of times larger than typical surfactant molecules, and 5,000 of them laid edge to edge would measure just 1mm.
More than just tiny cellulose spheres.
NaturDots are just plain cellulose.
But our unique insight is how to give them superpowers.
We’ve worked out how to make one side lipophilic (oil-loving), while the other side is hydrophilic (water-loving). This makes the NaturDots amphiphilic — and that’s the key property that makes them powerful surfactants and emulsifiers.
This artist’s concept shows what a single NaturDot might look like if you could take a photo of it when one side is made lipophilic (oil-loving).
Lipophilic side covered in plant oil
Hydrophilic side of exposed cellulose
Made by waste-free reassembly
NaturDots are made by physically rearranging cellulose from wood pulp into tiny spheres, then coating them with plant oil.
Unlike molecular surfactants, this process produces virtually no waste and is almost completely closed loop.