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Cerdan K, Gandara-Loe J, Arnauts G, Vangramberen V, Ginzburg A, Ameloot R, Koos E, Van Puyvelde P. On the gelation of humins: from transient to covalent networks. Soft Matter 2023; 19:2801-2814. [PMID: 36995046 DOI: 10.1039/d2sm01506d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/19/2023]
Abstract
Humins are a by-product of many acid-catalyzed biorefinery processes converting polysaccharides into platform chemicals. The valorization of humin residue to increase the profit of biorefinery operations and reduce waste is a field that is growing interest as the production of humins continues to increase. This includes their valorization in materials science. For successful processing of humin-based materials, this study aims to understand the thermal polymerization mechanisms of humins from a rheological perspective. Thermal crosslinking of raw humins leads to an increase in their molecular weight, which in turn leads to the formation of a gel. Humin's gels structure combines physical (thermally reversible) and chemical (thermally irreversible) crosslinks, and temperature plays an essential role in the crosslink density and the gel properties. High temperatures delay the formation of a gel due to the scission of physicochemical interactions, drastically decreasing their viscosity, whereas upon cooling a stronger gel is formed combining the recovered physicochemical bonds and the newly created chemical crosslinks. Thus, a transition from a supramolecular network to a covalently crosslinked network is observed, and properties such as the elasticity or reprocessability of humin gels are influenced by the stage of polymerization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth Cerdan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SMaRT), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
| | - Jesus Gandara-Loe
- Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, Centre for Membrane Separation, Adsorption, Catalysis and Spectroscopy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
| | - Giel Arnauts
- Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, Centre for Membrane Separation, Adsorption, Catalysis and Spectroscopy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
| | - Vedran Vangramberen
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SMaRT), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
| | - Anton Ginzburg
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SmaRT), Wetenschapspark 27, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Rob Ameloot
- Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems, Centre for Membrane Separation, Adsorption, Catalysis and Spectroscopy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
| | - Erin Koos
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SMaRT), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
| | - Peter Van Puyvelde
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SMaRT), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
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Cerdan K, Brancart J, De Coninck H, Van Hooreweder B, Van Assche G, Van Puyvelde P. Laser sintering of self-healable and recyclable thermoset networks. Eur Polym J 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2022.111383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Cerdan K, Brancart J, Roels E, Vanderborght B, Van Puyvelde P. Humins Blending in Thermoreversible Diels-Alder Networks for Stiffness Tuning and Enhanced Healing Performance for Soft Robotics. Polymers (Basel) 2022; 14:polym14091657. [PMID: 35566827 PMCID: PMC9101211 DOI: 10.3390/polym14091657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Revised: 04/04/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Humins waste valorization is considered to be an essential pathway to improve the economic viability of many biorefinery processes and further promote their circularity by avoiding waste formation. In this research, the incorporation of humins in a Diels-Alder (DA) polymer network based on furan-maleimide thermoreversible crosslinks was studied. A considerable enhancement of the healing efficiency was observed by just healing for 1 h at 60 °C at the expense of a reduction of the material mechanical properties, while the unfilled material showed no healing under the same conditions. Nevertheless, the thermal healing step favored the irreversible humins polycondensation, thus strengthening the material while keeping the enhanced healing performance. Our hypothesis states a synergistic healing mechanism based on humins flowing throughout the damage, followed by thermal humins crosslinking during the healing trigger, together with DA thermoreversible bonds recombination. A multi-material soft robotic gripper was manufactured out of the proposed material, showing not only improved recovery of the functional performance upon healing but also stiffness-tunable features by means of humins thermal crosslinking. For the first time, both damage healing and zone reinforcement for further damage prevention are achieved in a single intrinsic self-healing system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth Cerdan
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SMaRT), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium;
- Correspondence:
| | - Joost Brancart
- Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science (FYSC), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium;
| | - Ellen Roels
- Brubotics and Imec, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium; (E.R.); (B.V.)
| | - Bram Vanderborght
- Brubotics and Imec, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium; (E.R.); (B.V.)
| | - Peter Van Puyvelde
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Soft Matter, Rheology and Technology (SMaRT), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200J, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium;
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Cerdan K, Ouyang W, Colmenares JC, Muñoz-Batista MJ, Luque R, Balu AM. Facile mechanochemical modification of g-C3N4 for selective photo-oxidation of benzyl alcohol. Chem Eng Sci 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2018.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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