Bio-Based Foams to Function as Future Plastic Substitutes by Biomimicry : Inducing Hydrophobicity with Lignin
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2024-10
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Language
en
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Advanced Engineering Materials, Volume 26, issue 20
Abstract
To replace common plastics, bio-based alternatives are needed. Cellulose foams, as plant-based materials, are the most attractive solution, being often biodegradable and inexpensive and having the potential for distributed production. Cellulose and its derivatives, as raw materials, present a fundamental challenge, as they are hydrophilic. Herein, this problem is solved by drawing inspiration from the hydrophobic barrier that lignin creates in wood and applying lignin to methylcellulose (MC) foams. The lignin (0.0–1.0 wt% being the range studied here) is applied directly to the suspension consisting of water and MC (1.8 wt%), which is then foamed and solidified to a dry 3D porous structure. By comparing different types of lignin and the resulting surface morphologies, it is shown that organosolv lignin (OL) most strongly self-assembles to the air–foam interfaces, achieving area fractions up to 27%. Using different concentrations of OL, how hydrophobicity—described by the initial water contact angle and its time evolution—increases with increasing lignin concentration is then shown. Thus, significantly increased water resistance (up to 91 times higher compared to the pure MC foam), a crucial property for developing novel bio-based materials that can compete with traditional plastics, is able to be achieved.Description
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Advanced Engineering Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.
Keywords
biomimicries, celluloses, hydrophobics, lignins
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Citation
Miranda-Valdez, I Y, Mäkinen, T, Hu, X, Lejon, J, Elamir, M, Viitanen, L, Jannuzzi, L, Koivisto, J & Alava, M J 2024, ' Bio-Based Foams to Function as Future Plastic Substitutes by Biomimicry : Inducing Hydrophobicity with Lignin ', Advanced Engineering Materials, vol. 26, no. 20, 2400233 . https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202400233