Reconstructed wood with high water stability from bark cellulose and corncob lignin.

Natural wood has been highly valued for thousands of years due to its excellent strength, low density, and ease of processing. However, its poor water stability, which leads to swelling and deformation, limits its competitiveness. In response, we designed a reconstructed wood through a process involving pretreatment, TEMPO oxidation, lignin self-assembly, lignin melting, and densification.

Enabling Lignocellulose-Sourced Feedstocks to Fabricate Optical Filters with Desired Blocking Wavelength.

Near-infrared (NIR) filters have broad applications in fields such as information safety and privacy protection and environmental monitoring. Traditional NIR filters primarily rely on complex optical designs and environmentally unfriendly substrates, while lignocellulose-sourced NIR filters do not achieve the desired blocking wavelength and therefore face challenges in various application conditions. In this study, we propose a thickness adjustment strategy to precisely control the blocking wavelength of the NIR optical filters.

Lignocellulose-Based Optical Biofilter with High Near-Infrared Transmittance via Lignin Capturing-Fusing Approach.

Near-infrared (NIR) transparent optical filters show great promise in night vision and receiving windows. However, NIR optical filters are generally prepared by laborious, environmentally unfriendly processes that involve metal oxides or petroleum-based polymers. We propose a lignin capturing-fusing approach to manufacturing optical biofilters based on molecular collaboration between lignin and cellulose from waste agricultural biomass.

Lignin self-assembly and auto-adhesion for hydrophobic cellulose/lignin composite film fabrication.

Large amounts of lignin are produced as a by-product of paper pulping, resulting in a tremendous waste of natural resources with potential uses across various areas. To achieve the value-added utilization of agricultural waste and lignin, we developed a method for the fabrication of a lignin structure-designed hydrophobic film (LSHF) directly through solvent/anti-solvent self-assembly (acetic acid aqueous solution/n-hexane) and auto-adhesion of acetic acid lignin (AL) on the surface of a lignocellulose film (LCF). As the morphology structure revealed, the LSHF had a rough surface composed of lignin colloidal spheres, which significantly improved the water contact angle (WCA) from ~80° to ~130°.

Fabrication of lignin-containing cellulose bio-composite based on unbleached corncob and wheat straw pulp.

In contemporary life, plastic, a kind of petroleum carbon source, has been produced and used in varieties of applications. However, the vast consumption of petroleum-based plastic and the burning of agricultural wastes make the environmental problems increasingly severe. Furthermore, a large number of lignocellulosic resources (such as corncob and wheat straw) are often wasted and burned, which will aggravate the environmental damage.