Shouhai Li

Integration of lignin and acrylic monomers towards grafted copolymers by free radical polymerization

Three kinds of acrylic monomers (2,2,3,4,4,4-hexafluorobutyl methacrylate (HFBMA), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and butyl acrylate (BA)) were utilized to modify the lignin (BBL) by grafting from free radical polymerization (FRP), respectively. Calcium chloride/hydrogen peroxide (CaCl2/H2O2) was used as initiator. Effects of monomer type and concentration, initiator concentration and polymerization time on grafting from BBL were studied. Grafting of poly (acrylic monomers) onto BBL was verified by the following characterizations and this synthesis method was found to be high efficient and selective for grafting polymerization of BBL. The presence of the BBL moiety in the backbone also resulted in higher glass transition temperature compared with the homopolymer of each monomer, and some modified copolymers also improved its thermal stability. All modifications made BBL more hydrophobic and the static contact angles of these modified copolymers were above 80°. XPS analysis revealed that the surface of these modified BBL copolymers were dominated by acrylate monomer moiety. Additionally, the BBL-g-PBA copolymers can be used as dispersion modifiers in PLA-based materials to enhance UV absorption.

New Non-food-Based Composites of Acorn Nutlet and Polycaprolactone: Preparation and Characterization Evaluation

Two dissimilar renewable resource-based thermoplastic acorn nutlet (TPAN) materials were prepared via twin-screw extrusion with the aid of glycerol or monoethanolamine as plasticizers, and then two TPAN/polycaprolactone (PCL) composites with different plasticized systems were prepared. Mechanical test showed that glycerol-based composites had excellent tensile properties, and at a PCL content of 50 wt%, their tensile strength and elongation at break reached 14.4xa0MPa and 1,361xa0%, respectively. The micro-morphologic investigation of liquid-nitrogen brittle fracture surface indicated certain interface adhesion between glycerol-based thermoplastic acorn nutlet (GTPAN) and PCL. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis , differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis demonstrated that the weight ratios of TPAN in composites significantly affected the crystallinity, glass transition temperature (Tg), melting temperature (Tm) and thermal stability of composites. Soil burial degradation analysis displayed that all composites had excellent biodegradability. These results demonstrated that GTPAN/PCL composites had superior mechanical and biodegradable properties, enough to partially replace the conventional thermoplastic plastics.