A novel functional silica/lignin hybrid material as a potential bio-based polypropylene filler

Abstract

A functional silica/lignin hybrid filler was obtained using a process of mechanical grinding of precursors (Syloid®244 silica and kraft lignin). The product underwent comprehensive physicochemical and dispersive–morphological analysis. The silica/lignin hybrid has good homogeneity and a surface area of 164 m2/g. The effectiveness of combination was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The high electrokinetic stability (over almost the whole of the analyzed pH range) and above all the thermal stability of the resulting material (mass loss equal to 12%) indicate its potential use as a polypropylene (PP) filler. Experiments showed that the incorporation of a small amount of silica/lignin hybrid filler into PP may substantially influence its elongation at break and notched impact strength. Especially at low concentrations of silica/lignin filler (below 5 wt%) an exceptional set of mechanical properties was obtained. The addition of larger amounts of the filler was found not to bring any further improvement. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:913–922, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers

Nucleation ability of advanced functional silica/lignin hybrid fillers in polypropylene composites

“…The high interest for these materials is the effective surface of the nanosized filler making it possible to tailor and handle the properties of the material with very small proportions of the filler. The present work is the continuation of our earlier studies [43] on novel functional silica/lignin hybrid material as a potential bio-based polypropylene filler. In a preliminary study, we showed that the incorporation of silica/lignin hybrid filler influences on elongation at break and impact strength.…”

“…Silica with its good mechanical and thermal resistance can form interesting combination with cheap and environmentally friendly lignin. New hybrid materials may be used as functional biosorbents [41,42] and also as polymer fillers [43]. The high interest for these materials is the effective surface of the nanosized filler making it possible to tailor and handle the properties of the material with very small proportions of the filler.…”

Supermolecular structure and nucleation ability of polylactide-based composites with silica/lignin hybrid fillers

“…Obtained results indicate that due to porous structure properties produced hybrid fillers are active by means of physical. Analysis of the TG curves of hybrid filler (SiO 2 /lignin ratio 5:1) as well as its precursors is presented in our previous work [33]. However, it should be brought up that the hybrid filler was characterized by very good thermal properties.…”

“…Preparation of functional hybrid filler combining mechanical and thermal properties of inorganic silica with availability and low-cost organic lignin gains more interest these days [33,34]. The resulting hybrid materials could be used as polymer fillers or biosorbents [33,35,36].…”

“…The resulting hybrid materials could be used as polymer fillers or biosorbents [33,35,36]. In terms of mechanical properties of composite materials, the concentration of hybrid filler in polymer matrix is crucial.…”