Lignin, one of the representative biomass, is a natural polyphenol compound and is the main by-product of biofuel production processes. Lignin is considered a low-value material and about 98% or more of lignin is simply burned or abandoned. Nevertheless, it has a lot of functional groups with various abilities, and its potential is so high that many studies on its applications have been conducted. One of the most attractive properties of lignin is the ability to block UV light. Lignin consists of phenylpropanoid monomers: <i>p</i>-coumaryl alcohol, coniferyl alcohol, and sinapyl alcohol. Phenolic and carbonyl groups, commonly known as chromophores, in monolignols allow UV absorption. Through appropriate UV protection, it has been presented as an alternative to synthetic sunscreen agents, but its dark color hinders its application to cosmetics. In order to solve the shortcoming of technical lignin, we first employ light-colored lignin isolated under mild conditions as UV blocking materials in this work. The light-colored lignin showed UV blocking activity comparable to technical lignin, and it had synergistic effects when blended with commercial sunscreens. In addition, biografting of technical lignin was conducted to improve the performance of UV blocking. Grafting of lignin is generally carried out using chemical catalysts under harsh conditions, but we perform the grafting using a biocatalyst under mild conditions. Biografting could increase UV absorption capability of technical lignin successfully.

Application and biological functionalization of biomass lignin for UV shielding

256th National Meeting (2018)

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