Replacing petrochemicals by sustainable feedstocks is becoming more and more of general interest for a growing market biogenic plastics. Although a number of interesting demonstrators with respect of using Lignin as a biogenic source already exist, taking a closer look, still a number of challenges exist which need to be addressed in order to place in particular this polymer into real-life applications. One way is to use Lignin in epoxy-resins, however, reactivity of crude lignin in such resins is limited and so are the mechano-elastic properties. To improve the reactivity of lignin, the introduction of amines via Mannich reaction is a commonly used strategy. During this functionalization reaction, intra- as well as intermolecular lignin-lignin crosslinking occurs, which can vastly change the elastic properties of the lignin, and therefore, the properties of the resulting polymeric resin. Therefore, the molecular structure of the amine that is used for such a lignin functionalization may be of great importance. However, the relationship between the molecular structure of the amine and the elastic properties of the lignin-based polymer that is generated thereof, has not been investigated in detail. We investigated this relationship and found that the molecular flexibility of the amines plays a predominant role: I.e., the use of more flexible amines results in more elastic resins and the use of less flexible amines gives more rigid ones. In addition to the macroscopic analysis of the materials by 3-point flexural tests, the elastic modules of the resins were determined spatially resolved by AFM. Thus, we could demonstrate that the intrinsic elasticities of the lignin domains are the main reason for this tendency, and our findings may be useful for a successful design and control of the mechanical properties of Lignin based epoxy-resins.<br/>

Lignin-based epoxy-resins: understanding the influence of Lignin homo cross-linking during amination reaction to control final elastic properties of the bio-hybrid material

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.