ORCID iD
Mitra S. Ganewatta: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9465-8238
Chuanbing Tang: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0242-8241
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Polymers made from natural biomass are gaining interest due to the rising environmental concerns and depletion of petrochemical resources. Lignin isolated from lignocellulosic biomass is the second most abundant natural polymer next to cellulose. The paper pulp process produces industrial lignin as a byproduct that is mostly used for energy and has less significant utility in materials applications. High abundance, rich chemical functionalities, CO2 neutrality, reinforcing properties, antioxidant and UV blocking abilities, as well as environmental friendliness, make lignin an interesting substrate for materials and chemical development. However, poor processability, low reactivity, and intrinsic structural heterogeneity limit lignins′ polymeric applications in high-performance advanced materials. With the advent of controlled polymerization methods such as ATRP, RAFT, and ADMET, there has been a great interest in academia and industry to make value-added polymeric materials from lignin. This review focuses on recent investigations that utilize controlled polymerization methods to generate novel lignin-based polymeric materials. Polymers developed from lignin-based monomers, various polymer grafting technologies, copolymer properties, and their applications are discussed.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Published in Polymers, Volume 11, Issue 7, 2019, pages 1176-.
Rights
© 2019, the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
APA Citation
Ganewatta, M., Lokupitiya, H., & Tang, C. (2019). Lignin Biopolymers in the Age of Controlled Polymerization. Polymers, 11(7), 1176. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11071176