Agglomeration of Viruses by Cationic Lignin Particles for Facilitated Water Purification

Abstract

Virus contamination of water is a threat to human health in many countries. Current solutions for inactivation of viruses mainly rely on environmentally burdensome chemical oxidation or energy-intensive ultraviolet irradiation, which may create toxic secondary products. Here, we show that renewable plant biomass-sourced colloidal lignin particles (CLPs) can be used as agglomeration agents to facilitate removal of viruses from water. We used dynamic light scattering (DLS), electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA), atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (AFM, TEM), and UV spectrophotometry to quantify and visualize adherence of cowpea chlorotic mottle viruses (CCMVs) on CLPs. Our results show that CCMVs form agglomerated complexes with CLPs that, unlike pristine virus particles, can be easily removed from water either by filtration or centrifugation. Additionally, cationic particles formed by adsorption of quaternary amine-modified softwood kraft lignin on the CLPs were also evaluated to improve the binding interactions with these anionic viruses. We foresee that due to their moderate production cost, and high availability of lignin as a side-stream from biorefineries, CLPs could be an alternative water pretreatment material in a large variety of systems such as filters, packed columns, or flocculants.

Lignin nanoparticles are renewable and functional platforms for the concanavalin a oriented immobilization of glucose oxidase–peroxidase in cascade bio-sensing

“…Note that, in the case of layered samples, better results were obtained with polyelectrolytes characterized by a zpotential value comprised between +20 mV and +10 mV (CATLIG and CH, respectively). 63,64 Apparently, the higher value of the zpotential reported for PDDA (+40 mV) 65 was detrimental for the overall activity of the system. Probably, the catalytic efficiency of Bio I-IV was dependent on the modality of the loading of Con A, due to the occurrence of supramolecular interactions tuning the optimal tetrameric conguration of the lectin.…”

Spherical lignin particles: a review on their sustainability and applications

“…The application of spherical lignin particles in biomedical applications has been recently reviewed 17 and will hence not be further discussed here. Some other interesting applications of LNPs are as templates for carriers and for enzyme immobilization 12,13,158,159 polymer composites and blends, 160 precursors for carbonaceous materials [161][162][163] and metalorganic particles, 164 agglomeration agents to facilitate virus removal in water purification, 165 and hybrid lignin-fatty acid capsules as phase-change materials for thermal energy storage. 70 These examples exemplify that spherical lignin par-ticles may find use in a plethora of versatile and even unexpected applications.…”

Nano-Structured Lignin as Green Antioxidant and UV Shielding Ingredient for Sunscreen Applications

“…LNPs are characterized by improved chemical and physical properties compared to the native state [ 94 ]. Their size tunability and spherical shape allowed to broaden the fields of application, encompassing drug delivery systems [ 95 ], flame retardant [ 96 ] and reinforcing materials [ 97 ], and waste treatment [ 98 ]. Remarkably, LNPs show improved UV shielding [ 94 ] and antioxidant properties [ 99 ] (see next paragraph).…”