A series of novel green lubricants with dissolved lignin in [Choline][Amino Acid] ([CH][AA]) ionic liquids (ILs) have been synthesized in this work. The effect of lignin on the thermal and tribological properties of the lignin/[CH][AA] lubricants were systematically investigated by means of thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and friction and wear tester. The lignin in [CH][AA] has been demonstrated effective additive to improve thermal stability, reduce wear rate and stabilize friction coefficient of lignin/[CH][AA] lubricants. Density function theory calculation on the electronic structure of [CH][AA] ILs reveals the atomic natural charge of ILs and their hydrogen bonding capability with lignin. Moreover, these green lubricants show excellent anti-corrosive property against commercial aluminum and iron boards. The strong physical adsorption of [CH][AA] ILs onto steel surface and the reciprocal hydrogen bonding between [CH][AA] ILs and lignin synergistically contribute to the enhanced lubrication film strength and thus the tribological property of these new lubricants. This work provides a new perspective on utilizing complete bio-products in advanced tribological lubrication systems. In addition, this will open a new application venue of lignin to improve product value in lignocellulosic biomass utilization.

Hierarchically porous tubular carbon (HPTC) with large surface area of 1094 m(2)/g has been successfully synthesized by selectively removing lignin from natural wood. No templates or chemicals are involved during the process. By further KOH activation, surface area of activated HPTC reaches up to 2925 m(2)/g. These materials show unprecedented high adsorption capacity toward organic dyes (methylene blue, 838 mg/g; methyl orange, 264 mg/g) and large electrochemical capacitance of >200 F/g. The sustainable feature of the wood precursor and demonstrated superior adsorption and energy storage properties allow promising applications of the processed materials in energy and environmental related fields.

Mesoporous carbon with embedded iron carbide nanoparticles was successfully synthesized via a facile impregnation-carbonization method. A green biomass resource, cotton fabric, was used as a carbon precursor and an iron precursor was implanted to create mesopores through a catalytic graphitization reaction. The pore structure of the nanocomposites can be tuned by adjusting the iron precursor loadings and the embedded iron carbide nanoparticles serve as an active component for magnetic separation after adsorption. The microstructure of the nanocomposites was carefully investigated by various characterization techniques including electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, surface analyzer, magnetic property analyzer and etc. ), these mesoporous nanocomposites show promising applications in pollutant removal from water. The facile material preparation allows convenient scale-up manufacturing with low cost and minimum environmental impact.

In polymer composites, organosilanes are often used to modify the surface property of silica nanoparticles and improve the interfacial properties. Surface properties of the modified silica, such as grafting density and consequent surface energy, largely depend on the molecular structure of the silane. Achieving maximum interfacial bonding between the filler and polymer requires precise control of silica surface property. In this work, four silanes with similar molecular structure but different alkyl chain lengths, trimethoxy(propyl)silane, trimethoxy(octyl)silane, hexadecyltrimethoxysilane and trimethoxy(octadecyl)silane, are selected as model agents to study their roles in influencing silica surface property. The grafting density of silane on the silica is well controlled by regulating the reaction conditions. Three main surface characters, silane grafting density, surface energy and surface potential, are measured. More importantly, a linear relationship has been correlated when plotting grafting density vs. surface energy and grafting density vs. surface potential. Utilizing these relationships, a linear model has been developed to predict grafting density and surface energy by simply measuring surface potential. This model has been validated by both commercial silica and synthesized silica particles of different sizes.