Abstract
Lignin is the most abundant by-product from the pulp and paper industry as well as the second most abundant natural renewable biopolymer after cellulose on earth. In recent years, transforming unordered and complicated lignin into ordered and uniform nanoparticles has attracted wide attention due to their excellent properties such as controlled structures and sizes, better miscibility with polymers, and improved antioxidant activity. In this review, we first introduce five important technical lignin from different sources and then provide a comprehensive overview of the recent progress of preparation techniques which are involved in the fabrication of various lignin-based nanoparticles and their industrial applications in different fields such as drug delivery carriers, UV absorbents, hybrid nanocomposites, antioxidant agents, antibacterial agents, adsorbents for heavy metal ions and dyes, and anticorrosion nanofillers.
Highlights
As a green, safe, low-cost, and sustainable natural renewable resource, lignocellulose is considered an excellent potential alternative to traditional petrochemical resources for a variety of applications [1].In recent years, producing bioenergy and high-value green chemicals from lignocellulose has received worldwide attention due to the increasing resource, environmental, economic, and health issues [2,3,4].Lignocellulose is derived from plant and wood, which mainly consists of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin [5]
The results showed that the obtained nanoparticles had a particle size in the range of 15–20 nm and exhibited an obvious spherical morphology when ethylene glycol and castor oil were employed as solvents
1.5 wt % of resulting products were added into bio-poly(trimethylene terephthalate) and the results showed that the tensile strength, modulus, flexural strength, modulus, and impact strength separately increased by 14.86%, 8.26%, 14.89%, 10.24%, and 30.93%, respectively, and the heat deflection temperature (HDT) increased by 117.7% comparing to the original bio-PTT matrix, indicating a good effect of lignin nanoparticles (LNP)
Summary
In recent years, producing bioenergy and high-value green chemicals from lignocellulose has received worldwide attention due to the increasing resource, environmental, economic, and health issues [2,3,4]. Lignocellulose is derived from plant and wood, which mainly consists of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin [5]. Lignin, as the second most abundant biopolymer next to cellulose on earth, is underutilized and its potential application value has not yet been well exploited [6,7,8]. Lignin is copious and the largest reservoir of aromatic polymer on earth, which plays an important role in plants, including transporting water and minerals, providing mechanical supports, and protecting plants or wood from chemical or microbial attacks [9,10,11]. The molecular structure of lignin is highly dependent on the wood locations, species, and especially the extraction processes [10,12,13,14,15,16]
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