Abstract
Lignin is an undervalued sustainable commodity with many potential applications. In this work, we used lignin to produce noncovalently modified graphene from pristine graphite. Lignin-modified graphene (LMG) was added to waterborne polyurethane (WPU) to produce nanocomposites through a facile, aqueous-only route. Dynamic mechanical analysis shows increased storage modulus, i.e., as high as 171%, for WPU/LMG nanocomposites. Unlike unloaded WPU, WPU/LMG nanocomposite coatings show complete self-healing after only 150 s of infrared (IR) irradiation because of entropic and enthalpic contributions of LMG to self-healing. Moreover, it is revealed for the first time that although the nanocomposite coatings display two-dimensional healing behavior, at each phase the healing progresses uniaxially, which can be attributed to the interplay among viscoelastic recovery response, surface-tension-driven viscoelastic restoration, and polymer diffusion. Furthermore, WPU/LMG nanocomposites exhibit substantial improvement i...
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