Main Focus
My research focuses on the structural features of cellulose at the microfibril level, particularly in cotton fibers. Cotton plants produce cellulose crystals that are much thicker than those in most other land plants, but the origin of this difference remains unclear. I study how structural changes occur during fiber maturation and drying using techniques such as X-ray diffraction and cryo transmission electron microscopy.
I am particularly interested in:
- Morphogenesis of cotton cellulose microfibrils
- Structural disorder and defects in nanocelluloses
- (Cryo-) transmission electron microscopy of soft matter
Curriculum Vitae
Jia Hui Lim is a postdoctoral scientist in the Department of Sustainable and Bio-inspired Materials, headed by Prof. Silvia Vignolini, at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces.
She studied Polymer Engineering at the University of Strasbourg before completing a PhD in Analytical Chemistry at the University Grenoble Alpes, working at CERMAV under the supervision of Dr. Yu Ogawa and Dr. Yoshiharu Nishiyama. Her doctoral research focused on order and disorder in cellulose microfibrils, including kink defects in nanocrystals and cellulose-solvent crystalline complexes.
Publications
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c00289
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10570-023-05346-x