Issue 8, 2023

Photo-responsive lignin fragment-based polymers as switchable adhesives

Abstract

Easily detachable and reusable adhesives are attractive as single-use adhesive replacements to reduce waste and promote reuse, recycling, or even upcycling options. Lignin, the second most abundant polymer and a byproduct of the paper-pulp industry, was utilized to design a novel, highly tunable reversible polymer adhesive. The approach adopted was to take advantage of the photo-responsive property of the α,β-unsaturated ester moiety of the p-hydroxycinnamic acid structure synthesized in this work using lignin-oxidation compounds and modified to attain reversible adhesion switching. The reversibility is achieved by the exposure of UV light that cleaves the covalent cyclobutane rings originally formed from the α,β-unsaturated bond of the ester, which softens the material and makes it easily separable. The original polymer structure can be established again by recrosslinking to offer reworkability. The design of experiments (DoE) method was introduced to optimize the significant variables to achieve optimum lap shear strength for the adhesive. The effect of various structural aspects shows a high tunability of the structure to meet the property requirements. The design strategy of the polymer adhesive from renewable resources, along with the structure–property analysis mechanisms described in this work, can be implemented to engineer new bio-based and reusable adhesives.

Graphical abstract: Photo-responsive lignin fragment-based polymers as switchable adhesives

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
24 Du 2022
Accepted
17 Gen. 2023
First published
25 Gen. 2023

Polym. Chem., 2023,14, 913-924

Photo-responsive lignin fragment-based polymers as switchable adhesives

P. Sinha Roy, M. M. Mention, A. F. Patti, G. Garnier, F. Allais and K. Saito, Polym. Chem., 2023, 14, 913 DOI: 10.1039/D2PY01474B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements