307 / 2018-07-31 16:00:32

Lignin nanoparticles as a high-value material platform to increase the revenue of a lignocellulose biorefinery

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Although conversion of low value but high-volume lignin by-product to its usable form is one of the determinant factors for building an economically feasible integrated lignocellulose biorefinery, it has been challenged by its structural complexity and inhomogeneity. We and others have shown that uniform lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) can be produced from a wide range of technical lignins, despite the varied lignocellulosic biomass and the pretreatment methods/conditions applied. Inspired by the story of successful production and application of nanocellulose biopolymer, this value-added nanostructure lignin enriched with multifunctional groups can be a promising versatile material platform for various downstream utilizations such as functional nanocompostes, catalyst support and bio-additives etc. This work aims to develop a facile technique route to prepare LNPs from highly condensed lignins, which usually poses great challenges to be upgrade to platform chemicals/fuels. It is shown the condensation structure of lignin facilitates its self-assembly process to form uniform LNPs with abundant surface functional groups. Unlike previous technique route that an additional surface hydrophobic modification is required to produce LNPs which unfortunately compromises the surface functional groups availability, this tailored route directly employs the condensation reactions as a hydrophobic reaction thus is more feasible for steam/acid pretreated lignin substrates that usually undergo severe acid-catalyzed condensations. The substructures of the prepared LNPs were further characterized using prevalent 13C and 2D-HSQC NMR techniques, which provide useful information to tailor its specific downstream applications. We hope this work could open the door for the production and application of novel LNPs in the nascent bioeconomy.