TY - JOUR A1 - Zou, T. A1 - Nonappa, N. A1 - Khavani, M. A1 - Vuorte, M. A1 - Penttilä, P. A1 - Zitting, A. A1 - Valle-Delgado, J. J. A1 - Elert, Anna Maria A1 - Silbernagl, Dorothee A1 - Balakshin, M. A1 - Sammalkorpi, M. A1 - Österberg, M. T1 - Experimental and Simulation Study of the Solvent Effects on the Intrinsic Properties of Spherical Lignin Nanoparticles JF - The journal of physical chemistry. B N2 - Spherical lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) fabricated via nanoprecipitation of dissolved lignin are among the most attractive biomass-derived nanomaterials. Despite various studies exploring the methods to improve the uniformity of LNPs or seeking more application opportunities for LNPs, little attention has been given to the fundamental aspects of the solvent effects on the intrinsic properties of LNPs. In this study, we employed a variety of experimental techniques and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the solvent effects on the intrinsic properties of LNPs. The LNPs were prepared from softwood Kraft lignin (SKL) using the binary solvents of aqueous acetone or aqueous tetrahydrofuran (THF) via nanoprecipitation. The internal morphology, porosity, and mechanical properties of the LNPs were analyzed with electron tomography (ET), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and intermodulation AFM (ImAFM). We found that aqueous acetone resulted in smaller LNPs with higher uniformity compared to aqueous THF, mainly ascribing to stronger solvent−lignin interactions as suggested by MD simulation results and confirmed with aqueous 1,4-dioxane (DXN) and aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). More importantly, we report that both LNPs were compact particles with relatively homogeneous density distribution and very low porosity in the internal structure. The stiffness of the particles was independent of the size, and the Young’s modulus was in the range of 0.3−4 GPa. Overall, the fundamental understandings of LNPs gained in this study are essential for the design of LNPs with optimal performance in applications. KW - Lignin KW - Electron tomography KW - Intermodulation AFM KW - Modulus KW - SAXS PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-546948 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c05319 SN - 1520-5207 VL - 125 IS - 44 SP - 12315 EP - 12328 PB - ACS AN - OPUS4-54694 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Silbernagl, Dorothee A1 - Ghasem Zadeh Khorasani, Media A1 - Cano Murillo, Natalia A1 - Elert, Anna Maria A1 - Sturm, Heinz ED - Glatzel, T. T1 - Bulk chemical composition contrast from attractive forces in AFM force spectroscopy JF - Beilstein Journal of nanotechnology N2 - A key application of atomic force microscopy (AFM) is the measurement of physical properties at sub-micrometer resolution. Methods such as force–distance curves (FDCs) or dynamic variants (such as intermodulation AFM (ImAFM)) are able to measure mechanical properties (such as the local stiffness, kr) of nanoscopic heterogeneous materials. For a complete structure–property correlation, these mechanical measurements are considered to lack the ability to identify the chemical structure of the materials. In this study, the measured attractive force, Fattr, acting between the AFM tip and the sample is shown to be an independent measurement for the local chemical composition and hence a complete structure–property correlation can be obtained. A proof of concept is provided by two model samples comprised of (1) epoxy/polycarbonate and (2) epoxy/boehmite. The preparation of the model samples allowed for the assignment of material phases based on AFM topography. Additional chemical characterization on the nanoscale is performed by an AFM/infrared-spectroscopy hybrid method. Mechanical properties (kr) and attractive forces (Fattr) are calculated and a structure–property correlation is obtained by a manual principle component analysis (mPCA) from a kr/Fattr diagram. A third sample comprised of (3) epoxy/polycarbonate/boehmite is measured by ImAFM. The measurement of a 2 × 2 µm cross section yields 128 × 128 force curves which are successfully evaluated by a kr/Fattr diagram and the nanoscopic heterogeneity of the sample is determined. KW - AFM force spectroscopy KW - Composites KW - Principle component analysis KW - Structure–property correlation KW - Van der Waals forces PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-520175 DO - https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.12.5 SN - 2190-4286 VL - 12 IS - 5 SP - 58 EP - 71 PB - Beilstein Institute CY - Frankfurt am Main AN - OPUS4-52017 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -