Issue 82, 2015

The impact of lignin source on its self-assembly in solution

Abstract

Recently, there has been a growing interest in developing value added uses for lignin, including the utilization of lignins as a precursor for carbon materials. Proper understanding of the association behavior of lignins during solution processing provides important structural information that is needed to rationally optimize the use of lignins in industry in a range of value added applications. In these experiments, we follow the assembly of lignin molecules from a variety of sources in dimethyl sulfoxide, a good solvent for lignins, using small angle neutron scattering. In order to mimic industrial processing conditions, concentrations of lignins were kept above the overlap concentration. At small length scales, short lignin segments with ∼4–10 monolignol units associate to form rigid rod-like/cylindrical building blocks, where the number of repeat units in a cylindrical segment decreases with increasing lignin concentration. These cylindrical building blocks associate to form aggregates with low cross-linking densities and a random coil or network like structures from highly branched lignin structures. The degree of branching of the base lignin molecule, which varies with source, plays a crucial role in determining their association behavior. The overall sizes of the aggregates decrease with increasing concentration at low cross-linking densities, whereas the opposite trend is observed for highly branched lignins.

Graphical abstract: The impact of lignin source on its self-assembly in solution

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Jul 2015
Accepted
30 Jul 2015
First published
30 Jul 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 67258-67266

Author version available

The impact of lignin source on its self-assembly in solution

D. R. Ratnaweera, D. Saha, S. V. Pingali, N. Labbé, A. K. Naskar and M. Dadmun, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 67258 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA13485D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements