Study on Thermally Induced Lignin Aggregation Kinetics for the Preparation of Uniformly Sized Lignin Nanoparticles in Water

Lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) present a potential avenue for the high-value utilization of lignin. However, the simple and ecofriendly method of thermally induced self-assembly for the preparation of LNPs has been overlooked due to a lack of sufficient understanding of the lignin aggregation mechanism. Therefore, this study focuses on the kinetics of thermally induced lignin aggregation. It was found that lignin aggregates formed at lower temperatures exhibit poor stability and are more prone to continuous growth through coalescence. This apparent contradiction with the conventional understanding of thermoresponsive polymers could be attributed to changes in the viscoelasticity of the lignin aggregates during phase separation. Based on this finding, we worked out strategies to optimize the preparation of LNPs in water through thermally induced self-assembly. Pure LNPs with well-defined interfaces and a minimum polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.12 were obtained by increasing the temperature to 125–150 °C. Furthermore, combined with noncovalent modification, LNPs with a PDI of 0.08 would even be formed at 80 °C. Notably, the resulting pure LNPs show potential for application in photonic crystal products that require excellent monodispersity. This study provides a new approach for the environmentally friendly preparation of LNPs with a controllable morphology.