High Performance Thermoplastic Elastomers with Biomass Lignin as Plastic Phase

For the first time, the coordination-based energy sacrificial bonds have been constructed in the interface between lignin and polyolefin elastomer for preparing a new class of high performance thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) with biomass lignin as the hard plastic phase. The coordination bonds not only promoted the dispersion of lignin, but also improved the interfacial interactions between lignin and polyolefin elastomer matrix, and also facilitated the orientation of chain segments during stretching. The synergistic coordination effect of lignin promoted higher energy dissipation, leading to simultaneously enhanced strength and toughness of lignin-based TPEs even with the lignin loading as high as 30 wt %. The lignin-based TPEs also exhibited excellent shape memory performance. Our strategy offers a promising methodology for the facile production of high performance but cost-effective TPE materials using biorenewable resources as plastic phase.