Over 30t /day of softwood kraft lignin is recovered by the LignoForce™ system in Canada. A continuous supply of softwood lignin means there are many potential opportunities to replace petroleum based materials and chemicals with lignin based products. Moreover, developing applications of renewable materials with lignin should be combined with green and sustainable processes, where waste is minimized and toxic chemicals are avoided. In this study, LignoForce™ lignin was fractioned into two parts and the resulting lignin had varying thermo-rheological behavior. These two fractionated lignins were combined together in specific ratios and transformed into nanofibers by electrospinning. The electrospun materials were disrupted by agitating the mats in water and the materials were transformed into ultralight 3D sponges. Using only this combination of two fractions, morphology of lignin nanofibers was tailored by heat treatment resulting in lignin sponges with high flexibility and significant shape recovery properties. Various microscale structures of lignin fibers impacted the properties of lignin based sponge materials such as resilience, compressive strength, and electrical conductivity for the carbonized samples. By exploiting lignin’s sensitivity to heat, and tailoring the thermal properties of the lignin through fractionation, the work provides an interesting path to form lignin derived functional materials without any toxic chemical additives.

Mixing up lignin fractions: Tailoring thermal properties for ultralight nanofibrous lignin sponges

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.