Preparation of aerogels from wheat straw lignin by cross-linking with oligo(alkylene glycol)-α,ω-diglycidyl ethers

Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2014-09-01
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Perez Cantu, Lilia Adriana  
Liebner, Falk  
Smirnova, Irina  orcid-logo
Institut
Thermische Verfahrenstechnik V-8  
TORE-URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11420/12454
Journal
Microporous and mesoporous materials  
Volume
195
Start Page
303
End Page
310
Citation
Microporous and Mesoporous Materials 195 : 303-310 (2014-09-01)
Publisher DOI
10.1016/j.micromeso.2014.04.018
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84901029947
Lignin is one of the most abundant by-products of pulp and paper manufacturing and second-generation biorefineries. Presently it is mainly used for energy production, but it is evident that higher added-value utilization options would be beneficial. One possible process is to use lignin as building block for chemical synthesis. In this work, lignin was used as a raw material for the production of aerogels as special class of porous materials. Lignin obtained from Liquid Hot Water (LHW) pretreatment of wheat straw has been cross-linked with oligo(ethylene glycol)- and oligo(propylene glycol)-α,ω-diglycidyl ethers of varying length, aiming at the preparation of lignin-based hydrogels and their conversion to aerogels. The effect of cross-linking conditions, such as lignin concentration, cross-linker-to-lignin ratio, gelation temperature and solvent exchange conditions, on the textural properties of the resulting aerogels were studied. The obtained aerogels had a surface area of up to 120 m2 g -1, bulk density as low as 0.15 g cm-3 and a thermal conductivity of about 50 mW m-1 K-1.
Subjects
Aerogels
Cross-linking
Lignin
Thermal insulation