Tunable Pickering emulsions with polymer-grafted lignin nanoparticles (PGLNs)

Lignin is an abundant biopolymer that has native interfacial functions but aggregates strongly in aqueous media. Polyacrylamide was grafted onto kraft lignin nanoparticles using reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) chemistry to form polymer-grafted lignin nanoparticles (PGLNs) that tune aggregation strength while retaining interfacial activities in forming Pickering emulsions. Polymer graft density on the particle surface, ionic strength, and initial water and cyclohexane volume fractions were varied and found to have profound effects on emulsion characteristics, including emulsion volume fraction, droplet size, and particle interfacial concentration that were attributed to changes in lignin aggregation and hydrophobic interactions. In particular, salt concentration was found to have a significant effect on aggregation, zeta potential, and interfacial tension, which was attributed to changes in solubility of both the kraft lignin and the polyacrylamide grafts. Dynamic light scattering, UV–vis spectroscopy, optical microscopy, and tensiometry were used to quantify emulsion properties and nanoparticle behavior. Under all conditions, the emulsions exhibited relatively fast creaming but were stable against coalescence and Ostwald ripening for a period of months. All emulsions were also oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions, as predicted by the Bancroft rule, and no catastrophic phase inversions were observed for any nanoparticle compositions. We conclude that lower grafting density of polyacrylamide on a lignin core resulted in high levels of interfacial activity, as characterized by higher concentration at the water–cyclohexane interface with a corresponding decrease in interfacial tension. These results indicate that the interfacial properties of polymer-grafted lignin nanoparticles are primarily due to the native hydrophobic interactions of the lignin core. These results suggest that the forces that drive aggregation are also correlated with interfacial activities, and polymer–nanoparticle interactions are critical for optimizing interfacial activities. Controlled radical polymerization is a powerful tool for polymer grafting that can leverage the intrinsic interfacial functions of lignin for the formation of Pickering emulsions.