Driven Assembly of Lignin into Microcapsules for Storage and Delivery of Hydrophobic Molecules

Oil-filled microcapsules of kraft lignin were synthe- sized by first creating an oil in water emulsion followed by a high- intensity, ultrasound-assisted cross-linking of lignin at the water/oil interface. The rationale behind our approach is based on promoting documented lignin hydrophobic interactions within the oil phase, followed by locking the resulting spherical microsystems by covalent cross-linking using a high intensity ultrasound treatment. As further evidence in support of our rationale, confocal and optical microscopies demonstrated the uniformly spherical morphology of the created lignin microparticles. The detailed elucidation of the cross-linking processes was carried out using gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and quantitative 31P NMR analyses. The ability of lignin microcapsules to incorporate and release Coumarin-6 was evaluated in detail. In vitro studies and confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis were carried out to assess the internalization of capsules into Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. This part of our work demonstrated that the lignin microcapsules are not cytotoxic and readily incorporated in the CHO cells

Progress and Research Needs of Plant Biomass Degradation by Basidiomycete Fungi

Peer reviewe

Effects of fillers on the fracture behaviour of particulate polyester composites

In the current work, the fracture toughness of sand-particle- and wood-flake reinforced polyester composites was studied under a linear elastic fracture mechanics approach. The effects of the particulate volume fraction (0–60 vol %) were studied. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the damage features on the composite surface. Results showed that sand-particle- and fine-wood-flake-reinforced polymer composites exhibited better results at 40 vol% than at other particulate volume fractions. Meanwhile, coarse-wood-flake-reinforced polymer composites showed higher properties at 30 vol % than at other particulate volume fractions. Observation of the composite surface after tests showed that sand particles have poor interfacial adhesion compared with wood flakes