dc.description.abstract | Our dependence on petroleum-based materials comes with significant environmental challenges
such as environmental pollution, including oil spills and air pollution. Furthermore, the utilization
of petroleum-based products leads to the emission of greenhouse gases, which contributes to
climate change. Additionally, many petroleum-based products, such as plastics, are not
biodegradable and accumulate in the environment, causing harm to wildlife and ecosystems. For
these reasons, researchers continue to seek out sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based
materials. Lignin is a promising starting material for producing sustainable and environmentally
compatible chemistries. Lignin is an abundant and sustainable resource. Organic synthesis and
polymerization reactions are utilized as effective methods for derivatizing lignin and tailoring it
for application in various industries. After synthesis and purification, drying is a crucial final step.
Generally drying conditions should be carefully selected to introduce minimal changes to the
properties of the synthesized products. Furthermore, there have been reports of lignin’s sensitivity
to heat, stimulating condensation reactions which alter the properties of the sample. There are no
comprehensive studies that investigate the topic of drying of lignin derivatives.
In this work, the objectives were to derivatize lignin in two ways via: 1) grafting reaction to create
a low molecular weight cationic lignin derivative and 2) polymerization to create a high molecular
weight cationic lignin derivative. [...] | en_US |