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Full-Text Articles in Biochemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Fabrication And Characterization Of Lignin–Pva Hydrogels With Tunable Network Structures, Keturah Bethel
Fabrication And Characterization Of Lignin–Pva Hydrogels With Tunable Network Structures, Keturah Bethel
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The ability to directly tune the crosslinked network structure of hydrogels is crucial for their functional applications in various fields, such as water filtration, protein separation, and tissue engineering. By controlling the crosslink density of the hydrogel, one can directly alter the mesh size – i.e., the end-to-end distance between crosslink junctions – and, subsequently, directly alter the hydrogel performance. This work discusses the fabrication and characterization of soft composites containing the biopolymer, lignin, are discussed. Precisely, physically-crosslinked composite lignin–Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogels were fabricated via the freeze-thaw (F/T) pathway, whereby solutions containing specified amounts of PVA and lignin were …
Elucidating The Mechanical And Transport Properties Of Lignin-Based Hydrogel Composites, Nicholas Gregorich
Elucidating The Mechanical And Transport Properties Of Lignin-Based Hydrogel Composites, Nicholas Gregorich
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The use of lignin in the fabrication of soft composites has become an emerging area of research in polymer science and polymer chemistry. These lignin-based materials present numerous benefits, notably, a reduction in the use of petroleum-based precursor, improved structural benefits to otherwise soft host polymers, as well as the inherent antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of lignin, making it suitable for biomaterials. Herein, we present two chemical reaction pathways of incorporating lignin that was fractionated and cleaned using the Aqueous Lignin Purification with Hot Agents (ALPHA) process into poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel composites for aqueous-based separations. By leveraging the ALPHA …