Lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant and renewable resource for the production of biobased value‐added fuels, chemicals, and materials, but its effective exploitation by an energy‐efficient and environmentally friendly strategy remains a challenge. Herein, a facile approach for efficiently cleaving lignin–carbohydrate complexes and ultrafast fractionation of components from wood by microwave‐assisted treatment with deep eutectic solvent is reported. The solvent was composed of sustainable choline chloride and oxalic acid dihydrate, and showed a hydrogen‐bond acidity of 1.31. Efficient fractionation of lignocellulose with the solvent was realized by heating at 80 °C under 800 W microwave irradiation for 3 min. The extracted lignin showed a low molecular weight of 913, a low polydispersity of 1.25, and consisted of lignin oligomers with high purity (ca. 96 %), and thus shows potential in downstream production of aromatic chemicals. The other dissolved matter mainly comprised glucose, xylose, and hydroxymethylfurfural. The undissolved material was cellulose with crystal I structure and a crystallinity of approximately 75 %, which can be used for fabricating nanocellulose. Therefore, this work promotes an ultrafast lignin‐first biorefinery approach while simultaneously keeping the undissolved cellulose available for further utilization. This work is expected to contribute to improving the economics of overall biorefining of lignocellulosic biomass.
With the aid of DFT calculation, deep eutectic solvents can be designed more powerful for the pretreatment of lignocellulose and the production of biochemicals.
The content of cellulose in biomass is important for producing nanocellulose in high yields. Cotton fibers containing ultrahigh purity (∼95%) cellulose are ideal feedstock for nanocellulose production. However, the presence of strong hydrogen bonding between the cellulose chains limits the use of cotton fibers for the production of nanocellulose in a facile and mild process. Here, efficient cleavage of the strong hydrogen bonds in cotton and ultrafast fabrication of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) with a high yield of 74.2% were first realized through a 3 min microwave-assisted deep eutectic solvent pretreatment and a subsequent high-intensity ultrasonication process. The obtained CNCs had diameters of 3− 25 nm, and lengths ranged between 100 and 350 nm. The CNCs also displayed a relative crystallinity of 82%, and the thermal degradation temperature started from 320 °C. The study provides a green and efficient method for the mass production of cotton CNCs, and is expected to contribute to improving the refinery utilization of cotton feedstock.
Among all the plastic pollution, straws have brought particularly intricate problems since they are single use, consumed in a large volume, cannot be recycled in most places, and can never be fully degraded. To solve this problem, replacements for plastic straws are being developed following with the global trend of plastic straw bans. Nevertheless, none of the available degradable alternatives are satisfactory due to drawbacks including poor natural degradability, high cost, low mechanical performance, and poor water stability. Here, all-natural degradable straws are designed by hybridizing cellulose nanofibers and microfibers in a binder-free manner. Straws are fabricated by rolling up the wet hybrid film and sealed by the internal hydrogen bonding formed among the cellulose fibers after drying. The cellulose hybrid straws show exceptional behaviors including 1) excellent mechanical performance (high tensile strength of ≈70 MPa and high ductility with a fracture strain of 12.7%), 2) sufficient hydrostability (10× wet mechanical strength compared to commercial paper straw), 3) low cost, and 4) high natural degradability. Given the low-cost raw materials, the binder-free hybrid design based on cellulose structure can potentially be a suitable solution to solve the environmental challenges brought by the enormous usage of plastics straws.
Turning wood into honeycombs
Wood is an attractive material for structural applications, but it usually works best as boards or sheets. Xiao
et al
. have developed a process for engineering hardwood that allows these sheets to be manipulated into complex structures (see the Perspective by Tajvidi and Gardner). The key is to manipulate the cell wall structure by shrinking and blasting open the fibers and vessels by drying and “water-shocking” them. This process creates a window wherein the wood can be manipulated without ripping or tearing. Honeycomb, corrugated, or other complex structures are locked in once the wood dries. —BG
Mixing multimetallic elements in hollow‐structured nanoparticles is a promising strategy for the synthesis of highly efficient and cost‐effective catalysts. However, the synthesis of multimetallic hollow nanoparticles is limited to two or three elements due to the difficulties in morphology control under the harsh alloying conditions. Herein, the rapid and continuous synthesis of hollow high‐entropy‐alloy (HEA) nanoparticles using a continuous “droplet‐to‐particle” method is reported. The formation of these hollow HEA nanoparticles is enabled through the decomposition of a gas‐blowing agent in which a large amount of gas is produced in situ to “puff” the droplet during heating, followed by decomposition of the metal salt precursors and nucleation/growth of multimetallic particles. The high active sites per mass ratio of such hollow HEA nanoparticles makes them promising candidates for energy and electrocatalysis applications. As a proof‐of‐concept, it is demonstrated that these materials can be applied as the cathode catalyst for Li–O2 battery operations with a record‐high current density per catalyst mass loading of 2000 mA gcat.−1, as well as good stability and durable catalytic activity. This work offers a viable strategy for the continuous manufacturing of hollow HEA nanomaterials that can find broad applications in energy and catalysis.
Transparent wood is considered a promising structural and light management material for energy-efficient engineering applications. However, the solution-based delignification process that is used to fabricate transparent wood generally consumes large amounts of chemicals and energy. Here, we report a method to produce optically transparent wood by modifying the wood’s lignin structure using a solar-assisted chemical brushing approach. This method preserves most of the lignin to act as a binder, providing a robust wood scaffold for polymer infiltration while greatly reducing the chemical and energy consumption as well as processing time. The obtained transparent wood (~1 mm in thickness) demonstrates a high transmittance (>90%), high haze (>60%), and excellent light-guiding effect over visible wavelength. Furthermore, we can achieve diverse patterns directly on wood surfaces using this approach, which endows transparent wood with excellent patternability. Combining its efficient, patternable, and scalable production, this transparent wood is a promising candidate for applications in energy-efficient buildings.
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