Solvent-Free Fabrication of an Elastomeric Epoxy Resin Using Glycol Lignin from Japanese Cedar

Kenta Ono; Osamu Tanaike; Ryo Ishii; Takashi Nakamura; Kazuhiro Shikinaka; Takeo Ebina; Thi Thi Nge; Tatsuhiko Yamada

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b01884

Solvent-Free Fabrication of an Elastomeric Epoxy Resin Using Glycol Lignin from Japanese Cedar

ACS Omega. 2019 Oct 7;4(17):17251-17256. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b01884. eCollection 2019 Oct 22.

Authors

Kenta Ono¹, Osamu Tanaike¹, Ryo Ishii¹, Takashi Nakamura¹, Kazuhiro Shikinaka¹, Takeo Ebina¹, Thi Thi Nge², Tatsuhiko Yamada²

Affiliations

¹ Research Institute for Chemical Process Technology, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 4-2-1 Nigatake, Miyagino-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 983-8551, Japan.
² Center for Advanced Materials, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 1 Matsunosato, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8687, Japan.

Abstract

In this study, a simple formulation of softwood-derived glycol lignin (GL)-based epoxy resin with a high GL content of greater than 50 wt % was demonstrated by direct mixing with poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether (PEGDGE), an aliphatic epoxide, without using any solvent. Because the GL powder produced from poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG400) solvolysis of Japanese cedar softwood meal was a PEG400-modified lignin (GL400), a strong affinity between PEG counterparts facilitates the uniform mixing of GL400 with PEGDGE, and one component uncured GL400/PEGDGE epoxy resin was prepared at a relatively lower temperature (100 °C) than the curing temperature (130 °C). The epoxy curing reaction was monitored by ¹H NMR and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies. The physical and mechanical properties of the epoxy resins with different GL400 contents were then evaluated. The developed resins exhibited good flexibility and elasticity depending on the GL400 content.