Microwave-assisted DES fabrication of lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils and its derived composite conductive hydrogel

Wei Liu; Chuang Jiang; Xiaoyu Li; Haoyu Li; Yu Zhang; Yi Huang; Shangqing Chen; Qingxi Hou

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121741

Microwave-assisted DES fabrication of lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils and its derived composite conductive hydrogel

Carbohydr Polym. 2024 Mar 15:328:121741. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121741. Epub 2023 Dec 27.

Authors

Wei Liu¹, Chuang Jiang², Xiaoyu Li², Haoyu Li², Yu Zhang², Yi Huang², Shangqing Chen³, Qingxi Hou⁴

Affiliations

¹ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Pulp & Paper, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China; State Key Laboratory of Biobased Fiber Manufacturing Technology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China. Electronic address: weiliu@tust.edu.cn.
² Tianjin Key Laboratory of Pulp & Paper, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China.
³ School of Chemical Engineering and Pharmacy, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430202, China. Electronic address: chensq616@163.com.
⁴ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Pulp & Paper, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China; State Key Laboratory of Biobased Fiber Manufacturing Technology, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 300457, China.

PMID: 38220351
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121741

Abstract

Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have been regarded as green solvents in the biorefinery of lignocellulosic biomass, but long duration time has severely limited efficiency. The microwave-assisted DES pretreatment along with enzymatic hydrolysis and high-pressure homogenization process was proposed to produce lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils (LCNF) from corncob. Benefiting from microwave-assisted DES pretreatment, the duration time was greatly shortened; meanwhile the effects of different kinds of DES on the resultant LCNF were investigated. The results showed that, the microwave-assisted DES fabricated LCNF (M-LCNF) was successfully obtained, exhibiting good nano size, thermal stability, colloidal stability, and fluorescence. M-LCNF was further introduced into phytic acid (PA) enhanced poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (P(AM-co-AA)) network and constructed composite conductive hydrogels (PLP). The obtained hydrogels exhibited good mechanical strength, UV blocking ability, fluorescence, and conductivity. A simple battery assembled with the resultant PLP as electrolyte had an out voltage of 2.41 V. The composite conductive hydrogel showed good sensing performance towards different stimuli (e.g., stretching and compression) and human motions in real time. It is expected that this research would provide an alternative way for green fabrication of LCNF and potential application of LCNF in flexible sensors.

Keywords: Composite conductive hydrogels; Deep eutectic solvents; Lignin-containing cellulose nanofibrils; Microwave; Sensing.