University of Fribourg

About: University of Fribourg is a education organization based out in Fribourg, Freiburg, Switzerland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 6040 authors who have published 14975 publications receiving 542500 citations. The organization is also known as: UNIFR & Universität Freiburg.

Glaciers and Climate Change

Abstract: Concurrent with atmospheric warming glaciers around the world are rapidly retreating, thinning, and losing mass. While total volume compared with the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica is small, glaciers outside the ice sheets have contributed significantly to recent global sea level rise. On average, these glaciers experienced only slightly negative mass budgets in the 1960s–80s, but mass loss has increased considerably since. While air temperature is the primary driver of global glacier mass loss, many feedback mechanisms, for example, due to changing glacier geometry, as well as ice–water interactions at marine- or lake-terminating glacier fronts, complicate the glacier response. Advances of individual glaciers are rare and often linked to dynamical processes largely unrelated to climate. Globally, glaciers have been projected to lose approximately 18%–36% of their 2015 ice volume by the end of the 21st century depending on the emission pathways. Continued monitoring of the world's glaciers using in situ and satellite observations and further studies to advance process understanding and model development are needed to reduce the uncertainties in glacier mass–change assessments and projections.

Grafting Polymers from Cellulose Nanocrystals: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications

Abstract: Over the past 10 years, the grafting of polymers from the surface of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) has gained substantial interest in both academia and industry due to the rapidly growing number of potential applications of surface-modified CNCs, which range from building blocks in nanocomposites and responsive nanomaterials to antimicrobial agents. CNCs are rod-like nanoparticles that can be isolated from renewable biosources and which exhibit high crystallinity, tunable aspect ratio, high stiffness, and strength. Upon drying, the abundance of surface hydroxyl groups often leads to a degree of irreversible aggregation, as a result of strong hydrogen bonding. Moreover, their relatively hydrophilic character renders CNCs incompatible with hydrophobic media, e.g., nonpolar solvents and polyolefin matrices. By grafting macromolecules from their surface, CNCs can be imparted with surface characteristics and other physicochemical properties that are reminiscent of the grafted polymer. This has allowed the desi...