Biopolymers Derived from Trees as Sustainable Multifunctional Materials: A Review

Abstract

The world is currently transitioning from a fossil‐fuel‐driven energy economy to one that is supplied by more renewable and sustainable materials. Trees as the most abundant renewable bioresource have attracted significant attention for advanced materials and manufacturing in this epochal transition. Trees are composed with complex structures and components such as trunk (stem and bark), leaf, flower, seed, and root. Although many excellent reviews have been published regarding advanced applications of wood and wood‐derived biopolymers in different fields, such as energy, electronics, biomedical, and water treatment, no reviews have revisited and systematically discussed functional materials and even devices derived from trees in a full scope yet. Therefore, a timely summary of the recent development of materials and structures derived from different parts of trees for sustainability is prsented here. A concise introduction to the different parts of the trees is given first, which is followed by the corresponding chemistry and preparation of functional materials using various biopolymers from trees. The most promising applications of biopolymer‐based materials are discussed subsequently. A comprehensive review of the different parts of trees as sustainable functional materials and devices for critical applications is thus provided.

Bringing Homogeneous Iron Catalysts on the Heterogeneous Side: Solutions for Immobilization

“…The progressive development of supports consisting of biodegradable, non-toxic, biocompatible, and available in large quantity biopolymers represents another answer to the problem of environmental sustainability [ 99 ]. Within this field lignin, collagen, wool, alginates, cellulose, and chitosan are among the most studied sources [ 100 , 101 , 102 ]. The latter is a derivative of chitin, a polysaccharide of N -acetyl- d -glucos-2-amine, held together by β(1-4)glycosidic bonds.…”

Basic Steps to Promote Biorefinery Value Chains in Forestry in Italy

“…Initially considered a waste from the pulp and paper industry, lignin is conquering new markets [10]. The potentialities of lignin, at different steps, was described by Liu, et al [11] as follows: (1) biopolymer component in thermoplastic polymer blends; (2) improvements in the interfacial properties of lignin by chemical modification and or grafting provide better compatibility with synthetic polymers; and (3) lignin can be depolymerized into monomers in order to be converted into platform chemicals for the synthesis of several polymers. Lignin from 2G biorefineries and pulp mills can be chemically and biochemically used to produce essential green value-added phenolics, i.e., vanillin, PHA, BTX, phenolic aldehydes, composites, high-performance lignin-based carbon fibres, adhesives, graphene battery electrodes for energy storage, resins, fillers, pigments, additives in the cement industry, adsorbents and dye preparations as an alternative to petroleum-based chemicals [12][13][14].…”

“…[73]. In pulp mills or biorefinery plants, the size of the particle is of importance because reducing the dimensions of the wood chips facilitates the penetration of chemicals, which enhances the delignification process [11]. On the other hand, chips smaller than 0.4 mm are less convenient because their absorption of chemicals is too high [74].…”

Gelatin‐pyrolyzed mesoporous N‐doped carbon supported Pd as high‐performance catalysts for aqueous Heck reactions

“…[11] The tradition precursors of porous carbon are usually coal, petroleum coke, and their derives. Recently, a wide range of biopolymers, such as cellulose, starch, alginate, carrageenan, dextran, and so forth, [12][13][14] have been proven as good precursors of porous carbon. They can be effectively transformed into functional carbon with heat carbonization process in the inert gas atmosphere at high temperature.…”