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Morales A, Seelam S, Love SA, O'Malley SM, Hu X, Salas-de la Cruz D. Reduced graphene oxide influences morphology and thermal properties of silk/cellulose biocomposites. Int J Biol Macromol 2023; 236:123971. [PMID: 36898467 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.123971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 03/04/2023] [Indexed: 03/11/2023]
Abstract
In recent decades, research into biomaterials such as silk or cellulose has rapidly expanded due to their abundance, low cost, and tunable morphological as well as physicochemical properties. Cellulose is appealing due to its crystalline and amorphous polymorphs while silk is attractive due to its tunable secondary structure formations which is made up of flexible protein fibers. When these two biomacromolecules are mixed, their properties can be modified by changing their material composition and fabrication methodology, e.g., solvent type, coagulation agent, and temperature. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) can be used to increase molecular interactions and stabilization of natural polymers. In this study, we sought to determine how small amounts of rGO affect the carbohydrate crystallinity and protein secondary structure formation as well as physicochemical properties and how they affect overall ionic conductivity of cellulose-silk composites. Properties of fabricated silk and cellulose composites with and without rGO were investigated using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-Ray Scattering, Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy, and Thermogravimetric Analysis. Our results show that addition of rGO influenced morphological and thermal properties of cellulose-silk biocomposites, specifically through cellulose crystallinity and silk β-sheet content which further impacted ionic conductivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abneris Morales
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America
| | - Sneha Seelam
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America
| | - Stacy A Love
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America
| | - Sean M O'Malley
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America; Department of Physics, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America
| | - Xiao Hu
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, United States of America; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, United States of America
| | - David Salas-de la Cruz
- Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America; Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, United States of America.
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Evaluation of the Compatibility of Organosolv Lignin-Graphene Nanoplatelets with Photo-Curable Polyurethane in Stereolithography 3D Printing. Polymers (Basel) 2019; 11:polym11101544. [PMID: 31547544 PMCID: PMC6835297 DOI: 10.3390/polym11101544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2019] [Revised: 09/21/2019] [Accepted: 09/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
In this study, lignin has been extracted from oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibers via an organosolv process. The organosolv lignin obtained was defined by the presence of hydroxyl-containing molecules, such as guaiacyl and syringyl, and by the presence of phenolic molecules in lignin. Subsequently, the extracted organosolv lignin and graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) were utilized as filler and reinforcement in photo-curable polyurethane (PU), which is used in stereolithography 3D printing. The compatibility as well as the characteristic and structural changes of the composite were identified through the mechanical properties of the 3D-printed composites. Furthermore, the tensile strength of the composited lignin and graphene shows significant improvement as high as 27%. The hardness of the photo-curable PU composites measured by nanoindentation exhibited an enormous improvement for 0.6% of lignin-graphene at 92.49 MPa with 238% increment when compared with unmodified PU.
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