Composited Gels from Nature Growing Scaffold: Synthesis, Properties, and Application

Abstract

As a nature ultralight, well-aligned porous and anisotropy feedstock, cornstalk pith (CSP) has not been exploited for material design. Herein, we use CSP as substrate to prepare multifunctional elastic composite gels. First, CSP is pretreated by ferric chloride then immersed in an unsaturated monomer solution, following by a polymerization to form enhanced networks. The ferric ions act as junction sites for the combination between the polymer chains and the CSP matrix, therefore, dynamically reversible bonds are constructed. The bonds dissipate the compression force by breaking the dynamic bonds and reconstruct when the loading is removed. The reconstructed dynamic bonds endow an antifatigue performance of the prepared gels, in the cyclic compression test conducting 100 times with a 50% strain, and the gel holds a 94% elastic recovery. Furtherly, oil/water separation, cushioning system and biobased sensor are developed on the basis of what the matrix endows and what the reversible bonds exhibit. The preparation method in this study enriches a simply and high value-added method to utilize biobased material.

Upcycling of Agro-waste: Biobased Piezoresistive Sensor by Exploiting the Natural Porous Structure of Cornstalk Pith for Detecting Pressure Signals

“…Just in China, more than 200 million tons of maize stover are disposed of as agricultural waste every year. 25 Development of suitable methods to convert CSP into biobased flexible devices with certain functionalities, both for the treatment of agricultural waste and for the preparation of ultralow-cost, sustainable and degradable flexible devices, is underway. This "two for the price of one" strategy has interested researchers.…”

“…However, the corn stover is treated as conventional agricultural waste, with most of it incinerated and a small proportion used as animal feed. Just in China, more than 200 million tons of maize stover are disposed of as agricultural waste every year . Development of suitable methods to convert CSP into biobased flexible devices with certain functionalities, both for the treatment of agricultural waste and for the preparation of ultralow-cost, sustainable and degradable flexible devices, is underway.…”

The preparation and performance analysis of chemical‐treated maize straw fibers and Its high‐performance polypropylene/chemical‐treated maize straw fibers/maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene/silane coupling agent composites

“…2 Unfortunately, because the application range is too narrow, many maize straws have to be wasted and burned rather than recycled and utilized, resulting in the direct waste of natural resources and pollution of the environment. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Physical modification and chemical modification are two common methods used to recycle and utilize maize straws in industries. Physical modification generally only changes the physic structure of maize straws, like grinding maize straws into powders and cutting maize straws into chopped fibers, which generally does not involve the change of chemical compositions of maize straws.…”

“…Maize straws are becoming increasingly popular in the industrial sector due to their high productivity as a crop 2 . Unfortunately, because the application range is too narrow, many maize straws have to be wasted and burned rather than recycled and utilized, resulting in the direct waste of natural resources and pollution of the environment 3–10 . Physical modification and chemical modification are two common methods used to recycle and utilize maize straws in industries.…”

Electronic Upcycling of Corn Straw: Biobased Elastic Conductive Cross-linked Network Eco-friendly Hydrogels with multifunction for Flexible Wearable Sensors

“…In China alone, hundreds of millions of tons of CS are waiting to be processed every year. 36 As a source for the development of bio-based materials, CS offers the advantages of abundant raw materials and extremely low cost. Moreover, CSP exhibits physical characteristics such as ultra-lightweight and a large specific surface area, 37 while also being composed of polysaccharides and oligosaccharides rich in active chemical groups.…”