Potential of a bio-disintegrable polymer blend using alkyl-chain-modified lignin

Correlations among Miscibility, Structure, and Properties in Thermoplastic Polymer/Lignin Blends

“…According to the results presented in this section, complete miscibility of lignin was not observed with any of the polymers studied contrary to claims published in the literature. 19,20,27,33 Dispersed structure was observed in each case and the size of the particles changed in a wide range, from about 10 to 0.5 µm. The differences are caused mainly by dissimilar interactions developing between lignin and the matrix polymers, but processing conditions also play a role.…”

“…Blends were prepared from lignin and many types of polymers, and the conclusions about the structure and properties of these blends are very controversial. Polyolefins are obvious choices as matrix for lignin blends, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] but lignin was combined also with polystyrene, 19,28,29 poly(ethylene terephthalate), 20,29 polycarbonate, 29 poly(vinyl chloride), 30,31 poly(vinyl alcohol), 24,32 various biopolymers, like poly(lactic acid), [33][34][35][36] polycaprolactone, 37 poly(hydroxybutyrate), 38 starch 39,40 and proteins. 41,42 Quite surprisingly, a wide variety of behaviors was reported for the blends from complete miscibility 19,20,27,33,[40][41][42] to complete immiscibility 20,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]…”

“…41,42 Quite surprisingly, a wide variety of behaviors was reported for the blends from complete miscibility 19,20,27,33,[40][41][42] to complete immiscibility 20,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][34][35][36][37][38] for all kinds of polymers. This is valid even for polyolefins, 19,20,[22][23][24][25][26][27] which is very strange in view of their apolar structure and lack of functional groups. Systematic research carried out with polymers with increasing polarity from polypropylene, 22 to polymers forming aromatic, -electron interactions, 29 hydrogen bonds 24 or electrostatic interactions 43 showed that interactions play a crucial role in the determination of the structure and properties of the blends.…”

Competitive Interactions in Aromatic Polymer/Lignosulfonate Blends

“…A considerable number of papers have been published on the blends of lignin with a wide range of polymers including proteins [10][11][12], starch [13][14][15], polyolefins [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], vinyl polymers 4 [18,19,21,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] and polyesters [19,21,22,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. The chemical modification of lignin [10,14,16,[20][21][22]27,29,36,40,…”

“…The chemical modification of lignin [10,14,16,[20][21][22]27,29,36,40,41] and coupling [16,17,20,24,25,27,28] is often used to achieve better properties in polymer/lignin blends. Lignin may also be applied as a reactive component in epoxy [44,45] and phenol formaldehyde resins [46,47], as well as in polyurethanes [48][49][50].…”