Advanced Characterization of Lignin Nanoparticles by Asymmetric Flow-Field Flow Fractionation

Nadine Kohlhuber; Irina Sulaeva; Tao Zou; Oliver Musl; Robert Mildner; Scott Renneckar; Monika Österberg; Thomas Rosenau; Antje Potthast

doi:10.1002/cssc.202500329

Advanced Characterization of Lignin Nanoparticles by Asymmetric Flow-Field Flow Fractionation

Nadine Kohlhuber
, Irina Sulaeva^*
, Tao Zou
, Oliver Musl
, Robert Mildner
, Scott Renneckar
, Monika Österberg
, Thomas Rosenau
, Antje Potthast^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

24 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The unique properties of lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) – uniform shape, surface charge and nanoscale – carry great potential for the desired material utilization of technical lignins. Especially, the particle size distribution and dispersity of LNPs are the key for their successful valorization. However, characterization of LNPs usually requires a rather elaborate combination of light scattering and microscopy techniques which moreover provide only average values, are often limited in sampling size and require tedious sample preparation. Here we introduce a method based on asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) coupled with multi angle laser light scattering (MALLS), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and refractive index (RI) detection for the analysis of size and shape of LNPs. Exploiting the separation power of AF4 in combination with MALLS, DLS, and RI allowed us to obtain enhanced particle size distributions of LNP that are comparable to batch DLS and AFM measurements. Moreover, we discuss the influence of the particle size on the MALLS and DLS signals and determination of the shape factor ρ of LNPs.

Original language	English
Article number	e202500329
Number of pages	10
Journal	ChemSusChem
Volume	18
Issue number	11
Early online date	20 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202500329
Publication status	Published - 2 Jun 2025
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Fritz EGGER GmbH & Co. OG, the County of Lower Austria (through the Austrian Biorefinery Center Tulln, ABCT-II), and the BOKU Doctoral School ABC&M, for their financial support. Moreover, we would like to thank Johannes Stecher from Waters | Wyatt Technology for the helpful discussions. The AF4-MALLS785nm-DLS-RI equipment was kindly provided by the BOKU Core Facility ALICE. Open Access funding provided by Universitat fur Bodenkultur Wien/KEMÖ.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

Keywords

asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation
dynamic light scattering
lignin nanoparticles
multi angle laser light scattering
particle size distributions

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Advanced_Characterization_of_Lignin_Nanoparticles_by_Asymmetric_Flow‐Field_FlowFinal published version, 25.4 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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title = "Advanced Characterization of Lignin Nanoparticles by Asymmetric Flow-Field Flow Fractionation",

abstract = "The unique properties of lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) – uniform shape, surface charge and nanoscale – carry great potential for the desired material utilization of technical lignins. Especially, the particle size distribution and dispersity of LNPs are the key for their successful valorization. However, characterization of LNPs usually requires a rather elaborate combination of light scattering and microscopy techniques which moreover provide only average values, are often limited in sampling size and require tedious sample preparation. Here we introduce a method based on asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) coupled with multi angle laser light scattering (MALLS), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and refractive index (RI) detection for the analysis of size and shape of LNPs. Exploiting the separation power of AF4 in combination with MALLS, DLS, and RI allowed us to obtain enhanced particle size distributions of LNP that are comparable to batch DLS and AFM measurements. Moreover, we discuss the influence of the particle size on the MALLS and DLS signals and determination of the shape factor ρ of LNPs.",

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author = "Nadine Kohlhuber and Irina Sulaeva and Tao Zou and Oliver Musl and Robert Mildner and Scott Renneckar and Monika {\"O}sterberg and Thomas Rosenau and Antje Potthast",

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AU - Kohlhuber, Nadine

AU - Sulaeva, Irina

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AU - Musl, Oliver

AU - Mildner, Robert

AU - Renneckar, Scott

AU - Österberg, Monika

AU - Rosenau, Thomas

AU - Potthast, Antje

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N2 - The unique properties of lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) – uniform shape, surface charge and nanoscale – carry great potential for the desired material utilization of technical lignins. Especially, the particle size distribution and dispersity of LNPs are the key for their successful valorization. However, characterization of LNPs usually requires a rather elaborate combination of light scattering and microscopy techniques which moreover provide only average values, are often limited in sampling size and require tedious sample preparation. Here we introduce a method based on asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) coupled with multi angle laser light scattering (MALLS), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and refractive index (RI) detection for the analysis of size and shape of LNPs. Exploiting the separation power of AF4 in combination with MALLS, DLS, and RI allowed us to obtain enhanced particle size distributions of LNP that are comparable to batch DLS and AFM measurements. Moreover, we discuss the influence of the particle size on the MALLS and DLS signals and determination of the shape factor ρ of LNPs.

AB - The unique properties of lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) – uniform shape, surface charge and nanoscale – carry great potential for the desired material utilization of technical lignins. Especially, the particle size distribution and dispersity of LNPs are the key for their successful valorization. However, characterization of LNPs usually requires a rather elaborate combination of light scattering and microscopy techniques which moreover provide only average values, are often limited in sampling size and require tedious sample preparation. Here we introduce a method based on asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) coupled with multi angle laser light scattering (MALLS), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and refractive index (RI) detection for the analysis of size and shape of LNPs. Exploiting the separation power of AF4 in combination with MALLS, DLS, and RI allowed us to obtain enhanced particle size distributions of LNP that are comparable to batch DLS and AFM measurements. Moreover, we discuss the influence of the particle size on the MALLS and DLS signals and determination of the shape factor ρ of LNPs.

KW - asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation

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KW - multi angle laser light scattering

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Advanced Characterization of Lignin Nanoparticles by Asymmetric Flow-Field Flow Fractionation

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

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