Environmentally friendly strategy to access self-healable, reprocessable and recyclable chitin, chitosan, and sodium alginate based polysaccharide-vitrimer hybrid materials.

Natural polysaccharides show enviable advantages for preparation of sustainable hybrid materials. However, in most cases, complex chemical modifications of natural polysaccharides are required, which not only causes changes of the inherent properties of polysaccharides, but also increases the manufacturing costs of the final materials. Therefore, it is highly desired to develop efficient and low-cost ways to access polysaccharides-containing hybrid materials.

New Kind of Lignin/Polyhydroxyurethane Composite: Green Synthesis, Smart Properties, Promising Applications, and Good Reprocessability and Recyclability.

A new kind of biobased material named lignin-containing polyhydroxyurethane (LPHU) is prepared from bis(6-membered cyclic carbonate) (BCC), dimer fatty diamine, and lignin for the first time. The preparation strategy is isocyanate-free, solvent-free, and catalyst-free, representing a green and environmentally friendly method to access polyurethane (PU)/lignin composites. The resultant LPHUs possess dual networks: a dynamic covalent network and a hydrogen bonding network, exhibiting superior mechanical strength, high thermal stability, excellent reprocessability/recyclability, and smart properties such as shape memory and self-healing.

Microdesigned Nanocellulose-Based Flexible Antibacterial Aerogel Architectures Impregnated with Bioactive .

This work is strategically premeditated to study the potential of a herbal medicinal product as a natural bioactive ingredient to generate nanocellulose-based antibacterial architectures. In situ fibrillation of purified cellulose was done in cinnamon extract (E) to obtain microfibrillated cellulose (MFC). To this MFC suspension, carboxylated cellulose nanocrystals (cCNCs) were homogeneously mixed and the viscous gel thus obtained was freeze-dried to obtain lightweight and flexible composite aerogel architectures impregnated with E, namely, MFC/cCNCs.

Efficient dissolution of lignin in novel ternary deep eutectic solvents and its application in polyurethane.

Novel ternary deep eutectic solvents (DESs) were designed to efficiently dissolve the lignin for synthesizing the lignin-containing rigid polyurethane foam (LRPUF). These ternary DESs were constituted by choline chloride (ChCl), two hydrogen bond donors - glycerol (Gly) and polyethylene glycol (PEG-400). The maximum solubility of lignin in the sample DES-2 (ChCl:Gly:PEG-400 = 1:2:2) could up to 66.

Photoluminescent lignin hybridized carbon quantum dots composites for bioimaging applications.

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have attracted considerable interests because of their unique luminescence properties and promising applications in bioimaging. Lignin hybridized CQDs (L-CQDs) are facilely synthesized by one-pot hydrothermal method with different molar ratios of citric acid and ethanediamine. The morphology and chemical structures of L-CQDs are investigated by TEM, FT-IR, XPS, 2D-HSQC NMR spectra.

Lewis acid-catalyzed biphasic 2-methyltetrahydrofuran/HO pretreatment of lignocelluloses to enhance cellulose enzymatic hydrolysis and lignin valorization.

Lewis acid-catalyzed pretreatment in a biphasic system consisting of bio-based solvent 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF) and water for a highly integrated one-pot catalytic transformation of lignocelluloses have been achieved. The aim of this work was to study the effects of different Lewis acid catalysts and pretreatment temperatures on the structural characteristics of precipitated lignin and enzymatic hydrolysis of the pretreated substrates, as well as the quantitative analysis of precipitates, solid residues, soluble carbohydrates and inhibitors. After the AlCl-catalyzed biphasic 2-MeTHF/HO pretreatment at 180 °C, its maximum cellulose conversion rate was enhanced by 7.

Near-infrared emissive lanthanide hybridized nanofibrillated cellulose nanopaper as ultraviolet filter.

The lanthanide complexes [Yb(fac)(HO), Yb(tta)(HO), Nd(tta)(HO)] functionalized nanofibrillated cellulose (Ln-NFC) nanopapers with near-infrared (NIR) luminescence and high transparency are rapidly fabricated after solvent exchange using a simple suction filtration film-making method. The effects of NFC and lanthanide complexes content on their photophysical properties of Ln-NFC nanopapers and their mechanism of UV filters are fully investigated. With increasing lanthanide complexes content in the Ln-NFC nanopaper, their transmittances are gradually decreased while their NIR luminescences are obviously increased.

Structural elucidation of inhomogeneous lignins from bamboo.

A better understanding of the inhomogeneous molecular structure of lignin from bamboo is a prerequisite for promoting the "biorefinery" technologies of the bamboo feedstock. A mild and successive method for fractionating native lignin from bamboo species was proposed in the present study. The molecular structure and structural inhomogeneity of the isolated lignin polymers were comprehensively investigated by elemental analysis, carbohydrate analysis, state-of-the-art NMR and analytical pyrolysis techniques (quantitative (13)C NMR, (13)C-DEPT 135 NMR, 2D-HSQC NMR, (31)P NMR, and pyrolysis-GC-MS).

Producing Lignin-Based Polyols through Microwave-Assisted Liquefaction for Rigid Polyurethane Foam Production.

Lignin-based polyols were synthesized through microwave-assisted liquefaction under different microwave heating times (5-30 min). The liquefaction reactions were carried out using polyethylene glycol (PEG-400)/glycerol as liquefying solvents and 97 wt% sulfur acid as a catalyst at 140 °C. The polyols obtained were analyzed for their yield, composition and structural characteristics using gel permeation chromatography (GPC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra.

Recent Advances in Characterization of Lignin Polymer by Solution-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Methodology.

The demand for efficient utilization of biomass induces a detailed analysis of the fundamental chemical structures of biomass, especially the complex structures of lignin polymers, which have long been recognized for their negative impact on biorefinery. Traditionally, it has been attempted to reveal the complicated and heterogeneous structure of lignin by a series of chemical analyses, such as thioacidolysis (TA), nitrobenzene oxidation (NBO), and derivatization followed by reductive cleavage (DFRC). Recent advances in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology undoubtedly have made solution-state NMR become the most widely used technique in structural characterization of lignin due to its versatility in illustrating structural features and structural transformations of lignin polymers.

Quantitative structures and thermal properties of birch lignins after ionic liquid pretreatment.

The use of ionic liquid (IL) in biomass pretreatment has received considerable attention recently because of its effectiveness in decreasing biomass recalcitrance to subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. To understand the structural changes of lignin after pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis process, ionic liquid lignin (ILL) and subsequent residual lignin (RL) were sequentially isolated from ball-milled birch wood. The quantitative structural features of ILL and RL were compared with the corresponding cellulolytic enzyme lignin (CEL) by nondestructive techniques (e.

Structural characterization of hemicelluloses fractionated by graded ethanol precipitation from Pinus yunnanensis.

Fractionation of hemicelluloses from delignified Pinus yunnanensis was carried out with KOH/H(3)BO(3) solution followed by graded precipitation in 15%, 60%, and 90% (v/v) ethanol solutions, respectively. Chemical compositions, physicochemical properties, and structures of the precipitated hemicellulosic fractions were elucidated by a combination of sugar analysis, GPC, FT-IR, and (1)H, (13)C and 2D HSQC NMR spectroscopy. Sugar analysis showed that the hemicellulosic fraction precipitated by 15% ethanol solution (H(1)) had a predominance of xylose (58.