Whether you’re wrapping a gift or bandaging a wound, you rely on an adhesive to get the job done. These sticky substances often are made from petroleum-derived materials, but what if there was a more sustainable way to make them? Now, a team of engineers at the University of Delaware has developed a novel process to make tape out of a major component of trees and plants called lignin-a substance that paper manufacturers typically throw away. What’s more, their invention performs just as well as at least two commercially available products.
The researchers described their results in ACS Central Science, and they are working on more ways to upcycle scrap wood and plants into “designer materials” for consumer use.
Sticky science
Lignin is a renewable resource, a substance in trees that helps to make them strong.When pulp and paper manufacturers process wood, the lignin is left behind and usually discarded in landfills or burned for heat. An inexpensive, plentiful and sustainable material, lignin presents a prime opportunity for some scientifically advanced upcycling.
Lignin is also a natural polymer. And shares some structural and materials property similarities with petroleum derived polymers, such as polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate, which are commonly used in adhesives and other consumer products, from packaging materials to cups. Thomas Epps, III, the Thomas and Kipp Gutshall professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, professor of materials science and engineering at UD, is also the corresponding author of the new paper. In particular, Epps suspected that lignin could be used to make adhesives with similar strength, toughness and scratch resistance to the petroleum based versions. Before the lignin could be transformed into a product, it was broken down by researchers at the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI), a multi-institutional research center at UD established by a grant from the US Department of Energy. Dionisios Vlachos, director of CCEI and the Delaware Energy Institute, is an international expert in catalysis. Vlachos and his team aim to make renewable products that are better for the environment, with unmatched performance.
Read more: New process turns wood scraps into tape
Whether you’re wrapping a gift or bandaging a wound, you rely on an adhesive to get the job done. These sticky substances often are made from petroleum-derived materials, but what if there was a more sustainable way to make them? Now, a team of engineers at the University of Delaware has developed a novel process to make tape out of a major component of trees and plants called lignin-a substance that paper manufacturers typically throw away. What’s more, their invention performs just as well as at least two commercially available products.
The researchers described their results in ACS Central Science, and they are working on more ways to upcycle scrap wood and plants into “designer materials” for consumer use.
Sticky science
Lignin is a renewable resource, a substance in trees that helps to make them strong.When pulp and paper manufacturers process wood, the lignin is left behind and usually discarded in landfills or burned for heat. An inexpensive, plentiful and sustainable material, lignin presents a prime opportunity for some scientifically advanced upcycling.
Lignin is also a natural polymer. And shares some structural and materials property similarities with petroleum derived polymers, such as polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate, which are commonly used in adhesives and other consumer products, from packaging materials to cups. Thomas Epps, III, the Thomas and Kipp Gutshall professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, professor of materials science and engineering at UD, is also the corresponding author of the new paper. In particular, Epps suspected that lignin could be used to make adhesives with similar strength, toughness and scratch resistance to the petroleum based versions. Before the lignin could be transformed into a product, it was broken down by researchers at the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI), a multi-institutional research center at UD established by a grant from the US Department of Energy. Dionisios Vlachos, director of CCEI and the Delaware Energy Institute, is an international expert in catalysis. Vlachos and his team aim to make renewable products that are better for the environment, with unmatched performance.
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