Abstract This paper provides an overview of recent
progress made in the area of cellulose nanofibre-based
nanocomposites. An introduction into the methods used to
isolate cellulose nanofibres (nanowhiskers, nanofibrils) is
given, with details of their structure. Following this, the
article is split into sections dealing with processing and
characterisation of cellulose nanocomposites and new
developments in the area, with particular emphasis
on applications. The types of cellulose nanofibres covered
are those extracted from plants by acid hydrolysis(nanowhiskers), mechanical treatment and those that occur
naturally (tunicate nanowhiskers) or under culturing conditions
(bacterial cellulose nanofibrils). Research highlighted
in the article are the use of cellulose nanowhiskers
for shape memory nanocomposites, analysis of the interfacial
properties of cellulose nanowhisker and nanofibrilbased
composites using Raman spectroscopy, switchable
interfaces that mimic sea cucumbers, polymerisation from
the surface of cellulose nanowhiskers by atom transfer
radical polymerisation and ring opening polymerisation,