Langmuir and Langmuir-Blodgett films of lignins

Author(s)

Carlos José Leopoldo Constantino

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC/BT)
• Defense date: 1999-02-26

Examining board members

Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior; Watson Loh; Agnieszka Joanna Pawlicka Maule; Ana Maria Carmona Ribeiro; Maria Elisabete Darbello Zaniquelli

• Advisor: Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior

Abstract

Langmuir monolayers and Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films were produced from lignins extracted from sugar cane bagasse, via the organosolv process The surface pressure isotherms revealed an area per molecule of 100 &#197 for a condensed monolayer, and the modelling of ellipsometric data led to a thickness of 60 &#197 per layer for the LB films. The latter were not homogeneous, as demonstrated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies, and therefore mixed monolayers of Iignin and cadmium stearate were transferred with the aim of achieving more homogeneous films. The area per molecule, based on the number of stearic acid molecules on the airlwater interface, increased with the lignin contents in the mixed monolayers, thus confirming the presence of both components in the Langmuir monolayer. Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy of LB films indicated that cadmium stearate as well as lignin were transferred onto the substrate. An equal amount of material was transferred in each deposition step, as demonstrated by the linear increase in UV-vis absorbance with the number of deposited layers up to the 20&#170 layer. Lignin and cadmium stearate are transferred in separate domains, which was indicated in X-ray diffraction measurements and AFM images. The latter also reveal that the roughness increases with the number of layers and may depend upon the substrate. Interestingly, films of pure lignin were more homogeneous than mixed films with cadmium searate, in spite of the higher stability and transterability of the mixed monolayers. Surface potential measurements showed a unitorm profile when the probe was scanned across an LB film, which may be taken as demonstration of uniformity at least at the macroscopic levei, though the film comprises domains and is usually rough for a molecular film. A comparative study was made ot monolayer characteristics for lignins obtained trom different sources and using different extracting procedures. The importance of functional groups was highlighted in these measurements, in which the area per molecule increased with the molecular weight ot the material. The observation that LB films from pinus and sugar cane bagasse exhibit surface potentials ot inverted sign has prompted us to investigate the possible contributions to such surface potentials. In addition to Iignins, in this study cadmium stearate and polyaniline LB films were also used. The overall conclusion was that the surface potential depends on the dipole moment of the monolayer-torming molecules, but is also affected substantially by the contribution from the substrate/film interface. The latter arises from charge injection from the electrode and is generally negative. For simple cadmium stearate LB films, the surface potential is positive for an odd number of layers, but negative for even numbers, since the dipole contribution is cancelled out (AU)