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In the field of biosourced materials, plant biomass is a renewable source of biopolymers and, consequently, a good alternative to synthetic polymers from petroleum resources. The major component of plant biomass is cellulose.

Controlled hydrolysis of cellulose fibres solubilizes the amorphous regions of the fibre and produces cellulose nanocrystals which are rigid crystallites in the form of rods of nanometric dimensions (5-20 nm wide and about 200-1000 nm long, depending on the source).

The Cellmach project, coordinated by Ana Villares (Nanostructured Assemblies Team), aims to manufacture molecular machines from cellulose nanocrystals. Molecular machines are systems that transform energy (heat, ionic strength, radiation) into linear or rotational motion at the molecular scale.

The major lock in the design of molecular machines is the transfer of energy from the molecular level to the macroscopic level.

The Cellmach's challenge is therefore to manufacture systems containing grafted nanocrystals with chemical functionalities that can perform molecular work, and that this energy be transferred from the angström (molecular motor, 0.2 nm) to the nanoscale (nanocrystal of cellulose, 200-500 nm).