Four kinds of lignophenols (Lps) were derived from native bamboo (Sinocalamus affinis) lignin through phase separation system by using four kinds of phenols (p-cresol, catechol, resorcinol and pyrogallol) as derivatives and 72% concentrated sulfuric acid as catalyst. The resulting lignophenols were characterized by 1 H-NMR, FT-IR, and GPC analysis. Then they were blended with polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) to cast thin biocomposite films. The mechanical properties, water-absorbing qualities, and thermal properties of films were tested and discussed. The results indicated that phase separation treatment can effectively improve phenolic hydroxyl contents of lignins. The lignin macromolecule was significantly reduced to small size and well-soluble polymers. The best amounts of added Lps in composite films depended upon the kind of phenols. In present study, the mechanical properties, water-absorbing qualities, and thermal properties of biocomposite films showed good results at less than 10% Lps' addition. This provides a possibility that a new kind of biodegradable films can be made up of engineering plastics and lignin. INTRODUCTIONThe development of commercially viable "green products" based on natural resources for both matrices and reinforcements for a wide range of applications is on the rise (Satyanarayana et al. 2009). Lignin, as the second most abundant renewable biopolymer in nature and an inexpensive and currently underutilized waste product from papermaking and biorefinery industries, has been a candidate for renewable materials; however, it is often difficult to blend with other biopolymer due to its complex and irregular structure. So it is necessary to modify lignin.Phenol chemical modification is one kind of method to modify lignin. Recently a class of lignin-based functional polymers, the lignophenols, has originally been designed and their synthesis process from native lignin has been developed. This process includes the phase separation reaction system composed of phenol derivatives and concentrated acid. In the process, native lignin is modified by selectively grafting phenol derivatives to benzyl position. The separated lignin derivatives have several structural characteristics, for example being highly phenolic, very light colored (pinkish white) and highly stable, which is in contrast to conventional lignin (Funaoka et al. 1989). PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLEbioresources.com Qian et al. (2015). "PHB-lignophenol films," BioResources 10(2), 3169-3180. 3170Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is accumulated by a wide variety of micro-organisms as an intracellular storage source of organic carbon and chemical energy. PHB has mechanical strength, elastic modulus, thermal moldability, and biocompatibility. It has attracted much attention as a biocompatible and biodegradable thermoplastic polymer, but its application has often been limited by its brittleness. In recent years, fillers from renewable source have been increasingly used in the preparation of PHB-based biocomposites.Bamboo encompasses 1,250 species within 75 ge...

Porous Al 2 O 3 ceramics with different contents of alumina fibers were prepared by gel-casting process. The effects of Al 2 O 3 fiber content on pore size distribution, porosity, compressive strength, and load-displacement behavior of the ceramic materials were investigated. Initial results showed that with the increase of Al 2 O 3 fiber content, the pore size and porosity of the material is increased, and the compressive strength is decreased. However, upon increasing the fiber content from 50 wt% to 67 wt%, the performance of the samples changed greatly. The compressive strength of the material increased, while the porosity remained unchanged, the pore size increased greatly, and the shape of the load displacement curve changed. It showed that when the fiber content increased from 50 wt% to 67 wt%, the loading body in the fiber-reinforced porous ceramics changed from particles to fibers. K E Y W O R D Scompressive strength, fiber, pore size distribution, porous ceramics

Conventional preparation of porous ceramics often hard to accurately control the porosity of the samples. In this paper, by improving the foaming method, the foaming process is placed in the limited space of the ball mill tank, and YSZ porous ceramics with different porosity are obtained by changing the amount of slurry. Initial results showed that the porosity of the sample varies linearly with the increasing of addition of slurry. From the microscopic morphology, it can be seen that the increase in slurry content will reduce the number of pore with little changed size, which lead to the decrease in porosity. Therefore, with simple calculation YSZ porous ceramics with 85%, 80%, 75%, 70%, and 65% porosity can be obtained using the method of foaming in limited space by ball milling. K E Y W O R D Sball milling, foaming, porosity, porous materials How to cite this article: Lang Y, Tian C-J, Dai X, Wang C-A. Preparation of YSZ porous ceramics with precise porosity control. Int J Appl Ceram Technol. 2020;17:974-979. https ://doi.org/10.1111/ijac.13431

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Bamboo (Sinocalamus affinis) lignophenols (Lps), synthesized using a phase separation system, were used as a natural plasticizing additive to complex with pulp (short fiber and fluffy short fiber) sheets. The structural features of Lps were analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and proton-nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H-NMR). The pulp sheet absorptivity of Lps, as well as the physical properties of complex sheets, were discussed. Results showed that when the concentration of bamboo Lps solution was 10 g/L, the absorption amount of Lps in the sheets made up of short pulp fibers (12%) was slightly higher than that of sheets made of fluffy short pulp fibers (10%), while physical properties, such as tightness, tensile strength, elongation, bursting, and tearing, were improved obviously after the addition of Lps. More obvious improvement in the physical strength was found in sheets made up of fluffy short pulp fibers. Results indicated that the amount of absorbed Lps was of the same importance as the properties of the pulp fibers. It is necessary to adjust the properties of both the Lps and sheets to get the best mechanical strength for the pulp sheets.