| 研究実績の概要 |
The purpose of the research was to develop new methodologies to valorize lignin in wood. Lignin is one of the three main components of wood, but it is often considered as waste and burned as low-grade fuel. Lignin has long been considered a promising alternative for fossil fuel since it is the most abundant aromatic biopolymer on earth. Nevertheless, its complex and recalcitrant structure has limited its exploitation. Nanoparticles have recently gained much attention as recyclable and environmentally friendly catalysts for the degradation of lignin. In our work, we focused our attention on the development of new methods for the valorization of lignin towards a more sustainable society.
In our work, we synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles and applied them for the oxidation of lignin monomer models. These nanoparticles were found to be good recyclable catalysts for the microwave-assisted oxidation of alcohols. Another important goal of our research was to devise a new way to recognize and quantify lignin in a complex reaction matrix. A new sensor has been developed that takes advantage of a lignin-binding peptide to immobilize lignin and of surface-plasmon resonance as the sensing mechanism. Furthermore, we developed a facile one-pot microwave-assisted synthesis of a wide library of fluorescent imidazole derivatives directly from wood powder by in situ conversion of the intermediates of the lignin depolymerization reaction. This is the first step for the development of a fully lignin-sourced chemical industry.
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