Patent Application
20250101184
Flame retardant materials are used in various applications, including clothes, furniture, building materials, and electronics, to delay or prevent the spread of fire [1,2]. They are necessary for sectors where the fire risk is high, and safety is paramount. Minerals, such as halogenated, phosphorus-containing, nitrogen-containing, silicon-containing, and nano-metric compounds, are the major types of fire-retardant materials [3]. However, these flame retardants have been proven to have detrimental environmental and health effects, such as being persistent and bio accumulative, as well as potentially carcinogenic [4]. Earlier, halogen-based flame-retardant polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), such as penta- and octa-bromodiphenyl ether and hexabro-mocyclododecane, were applied as a coating solution and in the rection medium, because of their efficiency in modifying fabrics and biopolymers. However, their use was restricted due to the generation of toxic gases during combustion, which is dangerous for humans, animals, and the environment [5,6]. Mineral flame retardants, such as aluminum trihydroxide, are particularly effective in reducing fire risk and are frequently utilized. Nevertheless, their low efficiency requires significant quantities to be used to attain the desired increased fire resistance characteristics [7]. There is a need to produce safer and more effective flame-retardant materials that fulfill environmental and health requirements. Considering environmental protection and human safety, halogenated flame retardants were replaced with biobased phosphorous materials. Specifically, generating phosphorous containing biomacromolecules is interesting as it can pave the way to generate sustainable flame retardants [8]. In this case, the phosphor containing flame retardant can function via promoting carbonization, dehydrogenation, and physical protective layer properties [4].
Lignin, among other biopolymers, has received attention due to its three-dimensional structure, vast availability [9], and biodegradability [10]. Lignin is an amorphous and complicated biopolymer made up of polyphenolic molecules as well as a reactive substance with many functional groups, including hydroxyl, phenoxyl, carbonyl, methoxy, and carboxyl [8]. In the past, lignin was modified to be used in applications such as drug delivery [11], antimicrobial [12], thermal insulation [13], flocculants and dispersant [14], and biosensors [15]. Lignin can be used as a flame retardant because of its active functional groups, aromatic ring, and ability to form char [16]. However, it cannot be used in pristine form as a flame retardant because of its low fire-resistant efficiency [17]. Alternatively, lignin can be modified to improve its flame retardancy and fire resistance. Generally, chemical reagents, like halogens, nitrogen, silane, and phosphor can be used to improve the flame retardancy of materials [18,19,20,21]. However, because phosphorous flame-retardant material has different oxidation states from 0 to +5 that can release fire in both gas and condensed phases, the variety of structures from organic to inorganic and different amounts of P content in phosphorous materials are a suitable alternative to other materials.
Phytic acid (PHA) is an eco-friendly organic acid and biocompatible material that widely exists in plants, leaves, and roots [22]. This biomass is considered an excellent flame retardant because of the six phosphorous molecules in its structure, which produces a char layer to protect and change the burning behavior of materials [23]. In the past, phytic acid was used with chitosan [24], silane sol [25], and collagen [26] to produce flame retardant materials. However, phytic acid is mostly used as an additive to these biomaterials and it tends to leach out from mixture which could affect the mechanical properties and processability of the flame retarding biopolymers. It was also used as a flame retardant for coating textile materials, but as it is soluble in water, the flame-retardant properties are reduced by washing the textile materials [27]. In this regard, it would be more effective if a flame retardant reagent covalently bonded to the material, as it can have a permanent flame retarding effect. Also, phosphor elements in a phytic acid structure are active that can covalently bond to the active functional groups and incorporated in the structure, resulting in excellent flame-retardant efficiency [28][29].
In previous studies, the modification of lignin was carried out mainly by different phosphorous reagents, for example, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (NH4H2PO4) [30], phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) [31], phosphoric acid (H3PO4) [32,33,34], 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) [35], O,O dialkylthiophosphoric acids [36], and sodium 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl phosphate [37]. However, phosphorous reagents, such as DOPO, need a high temperature to get activated for the reaction [38]. Generally, phosphorylation is conducted in the presence of urea and THF, which is essential for preventing the degradation of modified polymer structure, especially at high temperatures [39,40]. Interestingly, it was observed that the number of phosphorus molecules in a biomaterial is directly correlated to its flame retardancy [41]. Compared with the mentioned reagents, phytic acid (PHA) has six phosphorous elements on its backbone, and is eco-friendly that can be utilized in low temperature for the modification of lignin to achieve phosphorylated kraft lignin because of OH active sites on its structure [42].
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of preparing a flame modified lignin composition comprising:
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of preparing a flame retardant composition comprising:
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided use of the modified lignin composition in a flame retardant material.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of increasing flame retardancy of a wood product comprising applying a coating comprising the modified lignin composition to a surface of the wood product.
Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention belongs. Although any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the present invention, the preferred methods and materials are now described. All publications mentioned hereunder are incorporated herein by reference.
In this work, kraft lignin was modified with C6H18O24P6 (PHA), a bio-based reagent with high amount of phosphorus, in a facile solvent-free reaction at low temperature, to produce a novel reactive bio-based flame retardant. The objective of this work was to optimize the reaction conditions to generate phosphorylated lignin with the maximum flame retardancy. Moreover, the thermochemical properties of the fabricated lignin derivative were comprehensively analyzed by advanced tools, such as 1H NMR, 31P NMR, HSQC-NMR, XPS, ICP-AES, TGA, and DSC. A smoke detector and limiting oxygen index investigated the flame retardancy behavior of modified lignin used for coating wood samples.
As discussed herein, this is in contrast with melt blending methods, which require temperature around 160° C.
Specifically, as will be known by those of skill in the art, the phosphorylation reaction has previously been done at high temperatures in the presence of urea. The urea is added as a protection against decomposition at these high temperatures. As such, it was anticipated that it would not be possible to have high phosphorous content in a water-based reaction because temperatures could not exceed 80-90° C. However, as discussed herein, comparison of the method of the invention with methods using urea at high temperatures showed that, surprisingly, there was not much difference in charge density, solubility, and P content in comparison to water.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of preparing a modified lignin composition comprising:
As used herein, “about” refers to the base value plus or minus 10%. As such, “about 10” means “9-11”.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of preparing a modified lignin composition comprising:
The ratio may be about 1 part lignin per about 0.4 parts phytic acid (mol/mol).
The ratio may be 1 part lignin per 0.4 parts phytic acid (mol/mol).
The pH may be from about 9 to about 11.
The pH may be from 9 to 11.
The pH may be about 9.
The pH may be adjusted by addition of a base. The base may be NaOH.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, increasing the amount of PHA will lead to an increase in crosslinking, which will reduce the solubility of the reaction product to an extent that pH adjustment cannot control it. Accordingly, in some embodiments wherein greater P content is desired, more phytic acid can be added, although the pH of the reaction would also have to be increased.
As discussed herein, the reaction is completed within about 20 minutes; increasing the time results in no significant change in charge density and solubility.
As will be known by those of skill in the art, carrying out the reaction at higher temperatures, for example, temperatures at more than 90-100° C., can result in the decomposition of KrL. Furthermore, at temperatures lower than room temperature, the mobility of molecules could decrease, which will result in a lower grafting ratio.
As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, PHA is acidic. By adding PHA to the reaction medium, the pH drops, which reduces the solubility of KrL. However, by adjusting the pH after adding the PHA, KrL active sites are deprotonated which allows for modification of the kraft lignin that results in more P content.
By this modification, the solubility of KrL increased from 30% to 98%, which makes it easy to solubilize in different solvents for coating applications. The easy way is dip coating; by immersing the wood in the solution, we can coat the wood. The coated wood can be used in different construction fields.
As will be appreciated, modifying kraft lignin with the phosphorous reagent to improve thermal stability and flame retardancy is essential for broadening its application into different fields. Bio-based flame retardants are one of the important replacements for halogen-based flame retardants because of their environmental benefits, renewability, and sustainability.
As discussed herein, a bio-based flame retardant was prepared by the solvent-free polycondensation reaction of kraft lignin (KrL) and bio-phosphorous regent phytic acid (PHA). The reaction conditions were optimized by considering the reaction's molar ratio, pH adjustment, solvent, temperature, and time, as discussed herein.
The optimized conditions for this reaction is the molar ratio of KrL:PHA (1: 0.4, mol:mol) in DI water as a solvent, 20 min, at 20° C. with pH adjustment to 11 after adding the reagent, followed by neutralization at the end of the reaction. As discussed herein, other suitable conditions will be apparent to those of skill in the art and are within the scope of the invention.
By this modification, the charge and solubility of KrL increased from −0.8 to −4 (mmol/g) and from 20% to 97%, respectively.
1H NMR, 31P NMR, HSQC, XPS, ICP-AES, and FTIR were used to characterize the structure of this bio flame retardant, as discussed herein. The thermal properties of modified KrL were studied by TGA and DSC wherein the maximum decomposition temperature (Tmax) increased from 545° C. to 650° C. while the glass transition temperature Tg increased from 180.80° C. to 215.22° C.
The flame retardancy performance of coated wood samples with phosphorylated kraft lignin (PK) were studied with limiting oxygen index and smoke detector analysis, which demonstrated that increasing the concentration of the solution increased the limiting oxygen index to 25% of oxygen concentration, and the smoke density rating decreased by 17.7%. As discussed below, this demonstrates that KrL was modified successfully with PHA.
Specifically, KrL was modified by C6H18O24P6 (PHA) in a solvent-free reaction to produce a novel reactive bio-based flame retardant. To optimize the reaction condition with the maximum P content, charge density, and solubility, a total of 23 experiments were run.
As discussed herein, the composition of the invention has improved char forming abilities. This is important because during combustion, triphenyl phosphate and triphenylphosphine oxide can break down into small radicals like HPO·, PO2·, PO·, and P2·. After ignition, these phosphorus radicals can work as a cleanser for H· and OH· radicals released in the gas phase during burning. Char will also form a condensed phase which will act as a protection layer that will not let heat and oxygen go to lower layers, thereby slowing the spread of the fire.
As discussed below, KrL was successfully modified with PHA to obtain a PK sample series with different phosphorous content with high thermal stability and flame retardancy properties.
Specifically, H NMR, FTIR, XPS, and ICP-AES analyses demonstrated the presence of phosphorous molecules and the new bond of C—O—P which confirms the polycondensation reaction of hydroxyl groups of KrL and PHA. Furthermore, P—O—P bonds show the crosslinking of P—OH after reaction which decreased the solubility by increasing the molar ratio. The 31P NMR results confirmed that the reaction occurred on aromatic, phenolic, and carboxylic hydroxyl groups. TGA and DSC analysis showed the thermal stability of modified KrL with PHA was significantly improved from 545° C. to 650° C. and char residue for the modified lignin at 800° C. 50%. LOI and smoke detector analysis showed that by increasing the concentration of the coating solution, the value of LOI increased by 26%, and the smoke release rate decreased by 17.7% due to the formation of more phosphorous crystals and char during burning, which was confirmed by SEM images. Specifically, SEM images gave positive evidence that phosphorous crystals can form a protection shield, penetrate the pores, and fill gaps and cracks during combustion.
As such, as discussed herein, a sustainable flame retardant was prepared in an aqueous medium, i.e., green solvent, from KL and PHA. In some embodiments, the reaction conditions that yielded the lignin derivative with the highest phosphorous element were KL: PHA of 1:0.4 mol/mol, reaction time, temperature, and pH of 20 min, 20° C., and 11, respectively. This optimized condition resulted in the PK17 with −4.2 mmol/g charge density, 9.7 g/L solubility in water, and MW of 4800 g/mol. The reaction under the optimized conditions decreased the aliphatic and phenolic hydroxyl groups of KL from 1.72 to 0.63 mmol/g and 3.33 to 0.71 mmol/g, respectively. 1H, HSQC, and 31P NMR confirmed that the aliphatic and aromatic OH of KL participated in the reaction with PHA and generated a covalent bond of P—O—C. The qualitative 31P NMR confirmed three different crosslinking of phosphate groups based on reaction conditions, such as mono phosphate, phosphodiester, and orthophosphate. Also, FTIR, XPS, and ICP-AES analyses confirmed the presence of phosphorous elements and the new C—O—P bond between KL and PHA.
The TGA analysis confirmed that the phosphorylation of KL improved the thermal stability of lignin by improving its decomposition temperature from 545° C. to 650° C. char formation at 800° C., while KL did not produce any char at 625° C. The DSC results confirmed the increment in Tg from 180.8° C. to 215.2° C. after phosphorylation. The combustion completion was analyzed by SEM, EDX, and EDS for PK17, and the change in sample morphology from regular to irregular and increment in the intensity of phosphorus was confirmed after combustion. By increasing the concentration of PK17 solution from 1 wt. % to 3 wt. % in the wood coating process, the LOI of wood rose from 21.8% to 26.0%, and the smoke density rate decreased from 34.0% to 17.7% due to the formation of thermally stable char and release of non-flammable gases. The promising flame retarding performance of PK17 on wood and filer paper paves the way for the production pathway of PK17 as a simple and effective aqueous-based reaction to produce phosphorylated lignin.
The invention will now be further elucidated and/or explained by way of examples. However, the invention is not necessarily limited to or by the examples.
Solubility, charge density, and MW measurements were carried out to optimize the reaction conditions for obtaining the modified lignin with the highest phosphorylated group. The effect of different molar ratios of reagent is illustrated in
The effect of pH of the reaction medium is illustrated in Table 1. Different pH adjustment scenarios were studied after the drop in solubility observed with the molar ratio (PK6) 1:0.4 (KrL:PHA, mol:mol). As discussed above, increasing the molar ratio causes the pH of the reaction medium to decrease, which causes the agglomeration and protonation of KrL. In strategy one, after adding reagent without any change in the pH, the reaction was exploited, and the samples were dialyzed (PK6 and PK11). In strategy two, the reaction was carried out without any pH adjustment, but the sample was neutralized before dialysis (PK8 and PK10). In strategy three, after adding the reagent, the pH of the reaction was adjusted to 11 and the reaction ran at pH 11. Afterward, the reaction medium was neutralized and dialyzed (PK7 and PK9). The hydroxyl and phosphate ions activity are pH dependent [45] and by increasing the molar ratio of reagent (PHA is acidic), the pH of the reaction medium was changed to a lower pH (acid) which affects the activity of both these groups [46]. At the lower pH (about 3 to 5) the phosphate groups are active and when the pH increases (about 9 to 11), both hydroxyl and phosphate groups are active which compete to interact with KrL and cause different crosslinking bonds like mono phosphate, phosphodiester, and orthophosphate [47]. When the pH of the reaction medium is acidic, because the particle flocculation is sensitive to pH, agglomeration increases [48]. Higher PHA concentrations suggest that the transformation from fractal-like to closed-packed aggregates is primarily attributed to the suppressed cross-linking process, as indicated by the decrease in solubility which was confirmed by H and P NMR [49]. By controlling the pH of the reaction with different strategies, this crosslinking can be controlled. Under the best strategy, which is the third one, the solubility increased from 72% to 97%, the P content increased from 0.041 g/g to 0.07 g/g, with a charge density of −4 mmol/g.
Also, the effect of urea (as a solvent) was studied at different temperatures, and the results are reported in Table 2. In earlier research, urea was utilized not only as a solvent but also as a degradation inhibitor at higher reaction temperatures (more than 90° C.), because most of the phosphorylation modification occurred between 90° C. to 120° C. [50]. However, surprisingly, both samples had the same phosphorus group, charge density, solubility, and other analysis results, as discussed herein.
The characteristics influencing the optimization of the phosphorylation of KrL were high charge density, solubility, and phosphorous content. These results were found under the optimized condition for (PK18) with the molar ratio of KrL:PHA (1: 0.4, mol:mol) in DI water, for 20 min, at 20° C. The pH strategy for this condition was pH adjustment after adding the reagent to 11, neutralization after the reaction and then purification. Based on these conditions, the obtained sample (PK18) had highest MW 4771, solubility 97%, and charge density −4.2 mmol/g and was chosen for further analysis.
1H NMR was used to characterize the chemical structure of PK18. The spectra in
By increasing the molar ratio of PHA/KrL, both aromatic and aliphatic hydrogens participated in the reaction. In addition, the intensity of the peaks in the range of 4-4.7 ppm, which shows the protons on phosphorous groups, was increased by increasing the molar ratio of PHA. The decrease in solubility by increasing the amount of reagent in PK6 is because of the crosslinking and interactions of the phosphorus groups that screen the structure of lignin and two peaks in the region 1-4 ppm that are assigned to protons of KrL, which were not involved in the reaction.
31P NMR spectroscopy was carried out to confirm the chemical structure of the KrL and PK18 samples. This analysis provided quantitative information on the concentration of each hydroxyl group of lignin participating in the reaction. The cyclohexanol peak (internal standard) is identified at 144.8 ppm. The results of this experiment are provided in
The 31P NMR spectra of KrL and PK 18 are shown in
HSQC-NMR (2D) was used to understand the changes in the structure of lignin, and the 1H-13C HSQC spectra of KrL and PK18 copolymer are displayed in
Due to the proton transferring effect of many aromatics' groups on lignin backbone, the aromatic region does not show any correlation in the HSQC. This effect is stronger when the sample was prepared with D2O solvent, due to its high proton exchange facilitation, which increases the typical widening found in the resonances of exchangeable protons, such as hydroxyl groups [61]. PK18 is more soluble in D2O, however, a more detailed study about phosphorus groups was conducted in D2O owing to the fact that these groups are not detectable in DMSO solvent due to the high polarity and lower solubility [65].
The FTIR spectra of KrL and PK18 are shown in
The chemical composition of the samples were analysed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The wide XPS spectra of KrL and PK18 are shown in
In
One strong peak at 527.4 eV was observed in the fitted 01s spectra for KrL and PK18, which corresponds to C—OH and C—O—C with 96.49% mass concentration that dropped to 81.31% after phosphorylation. There is an increase in the intensity of the C═O peak at 526.8 eV, which is due to overlapping of the new bond of P═O with this region. According to relevant studies, the formation of the C═O group and P═O in the phosphate group appeared at the same binding energy in the spectrum [72, 73]. This overlapping is attributed to the increase of these bands from 3.51% to 7.93%. The appearance of the C—O—P bond in the oxygen graph after modification at 527 eV is evidence of modification and polycondensation in the form of phosphorylation.
Fitted P 2p spectrum shows one main intense peak at 129.6 eV for C—O—PO3, which was the characteristic of phosphorus in both polyphosphates and phosphates, and one small shoulder peak at 131.5 eV for both C—P—O and P—O—P [74]. The evidence demonstrates that the —PO3 group replaced a part of the aliphatic hydroxy, phenolic hydroxy, and carboxylic groups on the KrL structure through the nucleophilic reaction and also demonstrates success in the reaction.
The mechanism of reaction was proposed in
The thermal behavior of the KrL and PK18 was evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) (
The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves are shown in
Flame retardancy of materials is commonly determined by the limiting oxygen index (LOI), and the results are listed in
For this analysis, wood was coated with different concentrations of KrL and PK18 and then burned in a smoke density detector. As shown in
The influence of phosphorylated lignin on the surface morphology of coated wood is generally determined by investigating char residues after smoke detector analysis. The results provide evidence for the elemental composition of phosphorus crystals, char residue formation, filled pores structures, and gaps and cracks in wood after burning, which produce a physical protection shield to interrupt the trancing of gas penetration (oxygen), fuel, and heat flow during combustion [93].
The flame retardancy of materials is commonly determined by the limiting oxygen index (LOI), and the results are listed in
As shown in
The influence of phosphorylated lignin on the surface morphology of wood is generally determined by investigating char residues with SEM after smoke detector analysis [100]. The spherical pores of some broken structures show the released gas caused by the combustion of UW, while these pores are compact in PC3 [101].
FRs are employed to interrupt the combustion process in two ways: they create a dense char that shields the substrate from combustible gases (i.e., oxygen) and heat (condensed phase mechanism), and they generate radical scavengers that can halt the chain propagation of combustion reaction (vapor phase mechanism) [103]. The flame retardancy of PK17 can happen in both gas and condensed phases, chemically and physically. Phosphorus is an inorganic element that will produce radicals after decomposition to accelerate char formation as a protective layer from heat degradation [98]. During the combustion, triphenyl phosphate and triphenylphosphine oxide can break down into small radicals, such as HPO·, PO2·, PO·, and P2· [104]. Because of ignition, these phosphorus radicals can function as an adsorbent for H· and OH· radicals released in the gas phase needed for ignition. A decrement in these radicals will reduce the flame [92].
In the condensed phase, phosphorus compounds start to decompose, and the protective char layer of phosphorus-carbon begins to form [81]. This protective layer could hold the flammable gasses released from inner layers and keep away the heat from unburned wood layers [91. 95].
For a better understanding of how PK17 works as a flame retardant fundamentally, XPS analysis was carried out on the samples collected from TGA after treatment at four different temperatures (220, 320, 600, and 800° C.). The mass concentration of P 2p increased from 7% at 25° C. to 26.9% at 800° C. Also, the C—C bond concentration remained almost the same (about 42%), but there was a decrease in the mass concentration of C—OH and C—O—C bonds from 81.31 to 15.22%. However, there was an increment in P—O, C═O, and P═O bonds from 3.51% to 49.49%. These results confirmed that P and C remained as by-products of burning in the form of —P═O, C═O, C—O—P, P—O, P—O—P, and C—P—O, while oxygen was released. Also, the mass concentration of C—P—O and P—O—P increased from 4.36% to 70.33% [105]. Wang et. Al. argued that thermal oxidation resistance can be confirmed by an increment in C═O, which exhibits a thermal flame retardancy mechanism [110].
The deep analysis was carried out on a microscale by SEM, EDS, and EDX for PK17 before and after combustion at 800° C. It was found (
To understand how PK17 would function as a flame retardant, the SEM and EDX images of PC3 samples after combustion were analyzed in detail. The results (
The performance and reaction route of phosphorylated lignin products were compared with other phosphorylated lignin products in Table 9. Our sample, a pioneering biomaterial, sets itself apart by being free from solvent (water base) and bio-phosphorus reagent (PHA) while exhibiting outstanding high heat resistance and flame retardancy. Unlike conventional materials that are listed in Table 9, made of oil-derived chemical reagents and under harsh and environmentally unfriendly conditions, our biomaterial was produced using environmentally friendly reagents, a water-based reaction at room temperature, ensuring a safer and more sustainable approach. The elimination of solvents not only reduces the environmental impact but also minimizes potential health hazards associated with their use. Additionally, our biomaterial's heat resistance is outstanding, offering enhanced heat resistance. This combination of solvent-free processing and excellent heat resistance with high thermal performance underscores the material's potential in advancing eco-friendly and high-performance applications. Theoretically, other types of lignin, e.g., alkali, lignosulfonate, organosolv, may be used for reacting with PHA in a similar manner as they all have OH functional groups.
Softwood kraft lignin (KrL) was obtained from FPinnovations, Hinton, Alberta, which was extracted via Lignoforce technology. Phytic acid sodium salt hydrate (C6H18O24P6) (PHA), sodium hydroxide (NaOH) (≥97%), sulfuric acid (H2SO4) (98%), deuterium oxide (D2O-d6) (99.9%), dimethyl sulfoxide-d6 (DMSO-d6) (99.8%), 3-(Trimethylsilyl)propionic-2,2,3,3-d4 acid sodium salt tetramethylsilane (TMSP) (≥98.5%), cyclohexanol (99%), 3-2-Chloro-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaphospholane (CDP) (95%), chromium(III) acetylacetonate (97%), sodium azide (NaN3) (≥99.5%), and poly (diallyl dimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) (100-200 kg/mol) were all purchased from Millipore Sigma, Oakville, Canada. The 1000 g/mol cut-off of the dialysis membrane made of cellulose acetate was purchased from Spectrum Labs. Pinewood (untreated, ALEXANDRIA, made in Canada) was purchased with the two different sizes and barcodes (00010-3196C for LOI, 00015-30096C for smoke density) from Canadian tire Inc, Canada, Thunder Bay store.
Phytic acid sodium salt hydrate (PHA) was used as the phosphorylating reagent. In each experiment, around 1 mol (1.5 g) of KrL and different molar ratios of PHA/lignin were used. For the phosphorylation of lignin, KrL was dispersed in deionized (DI) water (Concentration 25 g/L), and the pH of the mixture was adjusted to 12 by adding 1 M NaOH. The mixture was stirred for 24 hours at room temperature to complete the deprotonation. Different concentrations of reagent (PHA) were dispersed in 30 mL of deionized water and then added to the KrL solution to make different ratios of PHA/KrL. Afterwards, the mixture was transferred to a three-neck round-bottom flask in a water bath with a reflux condenser. Upon completion, the reaction mixtures were cooled to room temperature, neutralized with 1 M H2SO4, and purified for 48 hours via dialysis membrane in DI water to remove unreacted reagents. The product was then dried at 60° C. in the oven. The product of this reaction, phosphorylated lignin, was denoted as PK. This experiment was repeated under different conditions of (KrL:PHA, 1: 0.02, 0.06, 0.16, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 mol:mol), pH, solvent types (DI water and urea), time (20-240 minutes), and temperature (20-80° C.) to optimize the reaction. The pH was adjusted in three different conditions (strategies were discussed above), with 1 M NaOH solution and 1 M HCl. A control sample (CK) of KrL was produced following all steps outlined in the polymerization, pH adjustment, purification, and drying procedures in the absence of PHA.
The charge density of PK samples was determined by a Particle Charge Detector (PCD 04, BTG Mütek GmbH, Germany) using a 0.005 mol/L PDADMAC solution as the titrant. For assessing the charge density of the samples, 1 wt. % of the sample was stirred at 200 rpm for 24 h at 25° C. Then, the prepared suspensions were centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 5 min to separate soluble and insoluble parts. Afterward, 1 mL of the soluble portion of the samples was titrated against 0.005 mol/L PDADMAC solution to determine the charge density of the samples. Solubility analysis was measured by adding 0.2 g of lignin derivatives to 19.8 mL of deionized water. The suspensions were shaken in a water bath (Innova 3100, Brunswick Scientific, Edison, NJ, USA) for 12 h at 200 rpm and 25° C. Next, the prepared suspensions were centrifuged at 1000 rpm for 5 min. Then, 5 mL of the soluble part was taken and added to an aluminum tray to dry in a 105° C. oven. Data points were collected and weighed before and after drying the trays, and it was repeated three times. The solubility of the samples was calculated considering the collected, dried weight of the insoluble samples with standard deviations.
The organic elements, CHNS, of the samples was analyzed using an organic Elemental Vario EL following the combustion method. The samples were first oven dried at 60° C. for 24 h, then 0.02 g was transferred into the carousel chamber of an elemental analyzer. Carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, and nitrogen content of the samples was assessed via combusting the samples at 1200° C., and the gases were reduced for analysis.
The molecular weight (MW) of samples was measured via a gel permeation chromatography (GPC, Malvern GPCmax VE2001 Module+Viscotek TDA305 with multi-detectors) with the columns of PolyAnalytic 206 and PAA203, by dissolving 50 mg of sample in 10 mL of 0.1 M NaN3. The prepared solution was filtered by a 0.2 μm filter and analyzed by a standard method explained in the literature [97]. The temperature of the column and detector were set at 35° C. with the flow rate of 0.7 mL/min and 70 μL of each sample injection to the column, then the MW was detected by the RI detector.
1H NMR, HSQC (2D), and 31P NMR Analysis
The chemical structure of lignin samples was characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) and the two-dimensional heteronuclear single-quantum coherence NMR (2D-HSQC) was characterized using a Bruker Advance spectrometer at room temperature. The NMR samples were prepared by dissolving approximately 75-85 mg of KrL in 1 mL of DMSO-d6 and PK18 in D2O-d6 and stirred at 200 rpm for 24 hours, and 1 hour before the analysis, 5-6 mg internal standard (TMSP) was added.
31P NMR spectroscopic was carried out in both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Quantitative 31P NMR analysis assessed the content of phenolic hydroxyl, aliphatic hydroxyl, and carboxyl groups of KrL and PK18, i.e., the PK produced under the optimized conditions [98]. First, 70 mg of sample was dissolved in 1 mL pyridine/CDCL3 (1.6:1) mixture, then 200 μL of 2-chloro-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaphospholane as the phosphorylation reagent was added to mixture in the presence of 70 μL of cyclohexanol as the internal standard. The quantitative data of 31P NMR was collected at a pulse angle of 90°, room temperature, 0.65 acquisition time, and 25 s pulse delay with spectral parameters of a decoupling pulse sequence. The spectra were obtained using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (AVANCE NEO-1.2 GHz, Bruker Corporation, USA) with 1024 scans per sample at 25° C., a 0.6 s acquisition time, a 90° pulse, and 5 s of relaxation delay time. Qualitative 31P NMR was conducted by dissolving 80 mg of KrL in DMSO-d6 and PK in D2O-d6. The spectra were collected at room temperature, with 256 scans, 0.72 s acquisition time, a 2 s pulse delay, a 30° pulse width, and a relaxation time of 2 s with spectral parameters of a decoupling pulse sequence. The 1H-13C HSQC measurements were performed under the following conditions: a 90° pulse width of 48.17 μs, relaxation delay of 1.5 s, and an acquisition time of 0.15 s; 16 scans were performed. The 1H-31P HMBC measurements were performed under the following conditions: relaxation delay of 7 s, a 90° pulse width of 13.5 μs, 16 scans, and an acquisition time of 0.36 s, at 25° C. were performed. Top Spin 4.0.9 software was used to process NMR data points and spectra (2020 Bruker BioSpin GmbH).
The FTIR analysis of KrL and PK samples was carried out to monitor the chemical structures of the samples using Bruker Tensor 37 instrument (Germany, Germany, ATR accessory). For each analysis, a 50 mg powder sample was used, which was previously dried at 60° C. oven for 24 h. Samples were analyzed at the resolution of 4 cm−1 with spectral width ranging between 4000 to 500 cm−1 and 32 scans in adsorbent mode.
Phosphorus content of the samples was determined by an inductively coupled plasma spectrometer (ICP-AES). In this method, a representative sample from a homogenous and ground solid is digested in a CEM Mars Xpress microwave oven using I-CHEM glass vessels with nitric and hydrochloric acids. Once the digestion program is complete, the samples were diluted to 40 mL with Type I DDW. The sample digests were analyzed by the ICP-AES Varian), the modified EPA Method 3051.
XPS spectra were recorded using about 10 mg of a dried sample at 60° C. The analysis was performed using a photoelectron spectrometer (XPS, Escalab 250XL+, Thermo fisher scientific, USA) with a monochromatic Al Kα X-ray source (1486.7 eV) operating at 15 kV (90 W) in a FAT mode (fixed analyzer transmission). The energy pass amount for the ROI region was 40 eV and for Survey region was 80 eV. The voltage of 284.6 eV was used for the calibration of the C is binding energy. Full-spectrum, narrow high-energy resolution spectra, elemental composition, and functional groups were assessed using an ESCape software that was operated for fitting graphs, elemental composition, functional groups binding energy, and mass concentration of bonds.
To investigate the thermal response of PK samples, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed. Before analysis, samples were dried in a 60° C. oven for 24 hours. Then, 78 mg of the sample were measured in a special sample holder for analysis. The analysis was performed under a nitrogen gas atmosphere in a thermal analyzer (TGA i1000, Instrument Specialists Inc.) with a gas flow rate of 20-30 μsi and 15 mL/min and heated from 25° C. to 800° C. at the rate of 10° C./min. The samples were collected at different temperatures of 220° C., 320° C., 600° C., and 800° C. for surface elemental analysis conducted by XPS.
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to estimate the glass transition temperature (Tg) of KrL, and PK. In this analysis, 10 to 12 mg of dried samples were placed in hermetic Tzero® aluminum pans and loaded to a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC Q2000, TA Instruments, DE, USA) with a nitrogen gas flow rate of 50° C./min. This experiment was performed in two heating and one cooling cycle. In the first cycle, for erasing the thermal history, temperature was raised from 20° C. to 230° C., then cooled from 230° C. to 20° C. at 5.0° C./min. In the second cycle, heating cycle was performed from 20° C. to 230° C. at 10.0° C./min for the Tg determination. This analysis was conducted twice, and the standard deviations and average values were reported.
For flame retardancy analysis, first the wood samples were coated with PK18 solutions. Before coating, the wood samples were washed with ethanol, rinsed with DI water, and dried at 60° C. for 2 hours. Three different concentrations of KrL and PK18 were diluted in DI water to 10, 20, and 30 wt. % concentrations. The wood samples were immersed and dip-coated in solution at 60° C. for 4 hours. After coating each sample was dried at 60° C. until the weight of the sample was unchanged.
The fire resistance behavior of coated wood samples was measured by the limiting oxygen index (LOI) analyzer (NETZSCH TAURUS INSTRUMENTS, Germany) according to ASTM D 2863 standard with the sample size of (140 mm×20 mm×10 mm) at room temperature and based on the standard samples were marked 50 mm of the wood top to the bottom. Coated samples were placed in a vertical glass column with a flow rate of 40 mm/s for the oxygen and nitrogen gas based on the standard test techniques. The length of the flame was adjusted to 20 mm. The minimum amount of oxygen that needs to ignite the sample was recorded as an LOI percentage. The static smoke releasing of coated wood with the dimension of (4.5 mm×4.5 mm×1 mm) was tested by a smoke detector instrument (Smoke Density Advanced Instruments Co., Ltd. AIC-2843) according to ASTM D2843. In this analysis, the propane gas pressure was adjusted to 42 μsi. The coated sample was placed on the square metal screen for burning, and the propane burner exposed the sample. The smoke density apparatus software was used for analysis, and data was collected based on the smoke density rate and light adsorption percentage.
Scanning electron microscopy, SEM, was carried out to provide the evidence for the effect of PK18 on wood after coting. After burning the wood samples in the smoke density analyzer, they were collected and the morphologies of char for uncoated wood (UW) and coated wood (PC3) after burning were recorded by FE-SEM; Hitachi Su-70. The scale of 200, 100, 50, and 10 μm with the voltage of 5 kV were used for recording the images. Also, the surface elements of the burned wood samples were analyzed by the energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) of the XPS instrument.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to analyze the surface morphology of the wood samples after the flame retardancy test. Specifically, after burning the wood samples in the smoke density analyzer, the burned samples were collected, and the morphologies of char formed on uncoated wood (UW), coated wood with KL (KC), and coated wood with PK17 (PC) were analyzed using SEM. Also, PK17 and KL before and after combustion at 800° C. by TGA were collected and analyzed by FE-SEM; Hitachi Su-70 with a voltage of 5 kV. Also, the surface elements mapping and elemental analysis of samples were carried out by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) that were conducted in a voltage of 200 kV, which samples were coated by gold and carbon glue. Details of characterization are available in supplementary information.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been described above, it will be recognized and understood that various modifications may be made therein, and the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications which may fall within the spirit and scope of the invention.
The instant application claims the benefit of US Provisional Patent Application U.S. 63/584,650, filed Sep. 22, 2023, entitled “PHOSPHORYLATION OF LIGNIN WITH PHYTIC ACID IMPROVES THERMAL STABILITY AND FLAME RETARDANCY PERFORMANCE”, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63584650 | Sep 2023 | US |
