Lignin was extracted from sugarcane bagasse using alkali treatment process. The antimicrobial activity of sugarcane bagasse lignin (LNB) was evaluated against two pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli by broth dilution method. The MIC and MBC values of LNB are 10,000 μg/ml and 20,000 μg/ml, respestively in both pathogenic bacteria. The composite film between polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) blending with LNB at five different amounts (1%, 3%, 5%, 10% and 15%) were produced by solvent casting. The chemical interactions of composite films were investigated using FTIR. The IR spectra indicates the formation of strong intermolecular hydrogen bonds between the hydroxyl groups of PVA or PVP and lignin. Furthermore, the overall migration was investigated. The migration results revealed that the PVA films blending with lignin up to 3% and the PVP films blending with lignin up to 5% could be considered suitable for application in fatty food packaging field.

Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) epoxy resin with cycloaliphatic polyamine curing agent was modified with lignin to improve thermal and mechanical properties of of polymer composite. A systematic study of lignin loading, between 5 and 20 phr (per hundred parts resin) as compared to neat epoxy, was conducted for the reinforcement effect of epoxy resin composites. With the as-received lignin having spherical particles of 80 to 100 microns in diameter, the Tg of the epoxy-filler composites increased with a small addition of lignin up to 10 phr. Likewise, the yield stress and stiffness (Young’s modulus) of the epoxy resin-lignin composites significantly increased to a maximum value of 49.32 MPa and 2.75 GPa, respectively, with 10 phr lignin, due to the higher modulus of the filler compared to the bulk epoxy resin. Correspondingly, the storage moduli of the lignin-containing composites also increased upon filler addition up to 10 phr due to the impact of lignin. Conversely, however, the tanδ decreased in intensity with increasing lignin filler content, which reflects the dampening effect due to restricted chain mobility in thepresence of lignin particlesin epoxy systems.

The sweetness sensor has been developed for sensing sweeteners using lipid/polymer membrane as ion selective membrane in potentiometry measurement. In this work, effects of blending reduce graphene oxide (rGO) at 1.25, 2.5 and 3.75 wt.% during conventional lipid/polymer membrane preparation to increase electrical responsive was investigated. The results demonstrated that the lipid/polymer/rGO-3.75% membrane has the highest response, which was 13.06 and 18.21 % increment (at 0.1 M and 0.3 M of sucrose, respectively) from the conventional lipid/polymer membrane.

This work presents the synthesis and characterization of mixed rare earths hydroxide heterogeneous catalyst. The catalysts were prepared by co-precipitation of mixed rare earths with NaOH at different pH (6, 7 and 12). The prepared catalysts were characterized by X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS). The XRF results showed that the catalyst composed of cerium (Ce), neodymium (Nd), lanthanum (La), praseodymium (Pr) and samarium (Sm) being predominant at pH up to 7. Particularly, cerium (Ce) was favorable precipitation at pH 7. This results were confirm by SEM-EDS. The Ce (OH)3 phase was clearly observed for the mixed rare earth catalyst precipitated at pH 7. The XRF, SEM-EDS and XRD results were consistency.