A demethylated lignin improved PVA-based supramolecular plastic with tough, degradable, and water-resistant...

Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), as an excellent degradable plastic feedstock, is limited by its diminishing stability in wet environment, low strength, thermal instability and nonopaque properties. In response to these concerns, a PVA/demethylated lignin-based supramolecular plastic (DPVA-HA-Fe-5) was designed and produced from PVA, demethylated lignin (DL), humic acid (HA) and Fe³⁺ ions via a simple casting method. As compared with pure PVA plastic, the tensile strength of DPVA-HA-Fe-5 were increased by 411 % to 410.61 MPa, and the breaking strain was increased by 149 % to 239.47 %. Notably, the hydrophobicity of DPVA-HA-Fe-5 was also significantly improved. Although in highly humid environment (stored in RH = 100 % for 10 days) or in alkaline organic solvent (stored in pyridine for 3 h), DPVA-HA-Fe-5 also showed excellent mechanical strengths of 302.9 and 222.99 MPa, respectively, which are equivalent or even superior to the most of commercial petroleum-based plastics. Moreover, the prepared plastics showed an outstanding UV resistance and shading performance, and about 98.3 % protection against ultraviolet radiation B rays and 90.7 % protection against visible light were obtained. In short, the introduction of lignin to improve the performance of PVA-based plastic is a feasible method, and it could facilitate the development of high-value utilization of lignin.