Advanced Sustainable Thermoplastics Based on Wood Residue Using Interface Nanomodification Technique

Abstract

Wood residue (WR) is one of the most important biorenewable and sustainable resources, however, it is still a big challenge to directly use such hydrophilic resources to obtain thermoplastics by common thermoplasticization methods. Consequently, WR is usually used as fuel to produce heat or as fillers in furniture and decoration materials. Herein, a WR‐based sustainable thermoplastic with both good thermoplasticity and waterproof performance by grafting hydrophobic n‐octanol side chains (IP‐8) onto the WR is reported. Thermoplasticity and waterproof mechanisms of the prepared thermoplastics are extensively evaluated. It is found for the first time that Tg of the modified WR can be significantly reduced to 54 °C, which is much lower than the reported value (≈200 °C) of unmodified WR. Tm peaks are evidently detected once the IP‐8 content exceeds 52.1 wt%, implying much better thermoplasticity in comparison with the unmodified WR. The good thermoplasticity and waterproof performance are mainly attributed to the formation of new crystal lamella with a crystallite size of ≈84 nm and hydrophobic spherical nanoparticles (150–350 nm). The developed method has large potential application in the fields of environmental‐friendly and sustainable macromolecular materials based on biomass resources like wood residue and plant straw.

Solvent-free production of thermoplastic lignocellulose from wood pulp by reactive extrusion

“…Chemical modifications of the hydroxyl groups within the components of lignocellulose can interfere with hydrogen bonding and introduce side groups, which beneficially improves chain mobility to yield thermoplasticity as a result (Abe, Enomoto, Seki, & Miki, 2020;Bao et al, 2018;Chen et al, 2017;Chen & Shi, 2015;Feng et al, 2019;Guo, Chen, Su, & Hong, 2018;Xie, King, Kilpelainen, Granstrom, & Argyropoulos, 2007). The challenge for modifying lignocellulose is the lack of adequate available solvents to wet and dissolve its fibrillar structure, both quickly and extensively, such that enough hydroxyl functional groups are made chemically available for reactions.…”

Improved Chemical Reactivity of Lignocellulose from High Solids Content Micro-fibrillation by Twin-screw Extrusion

“…Lignocellulose is insoluble in common organic solvents and incapable of flow like commodity thermoplastics, which necessitates its functional modification whether by chemical or bio-fermentation methods to prepare bioplastics. Both approaches require vigorous reaction conditions and long reaction time (Bao et al, 2018; M. J. Tian et al, 2018;Zhen et al, 2016).…”