Pyrolysis Kinetics of a Lignin-Modified Cellulose Composite Film

Abstract

Cellulose is the most abundant natural biopolymer material, which has been widely used in film making and food packaging in recent years. However, lignin, a natural bioaromatic material, is always applied as a waste resource due to its low utilization efficiency. In this study, a ZnCl2/CaCl2/cellulose mixed system was used to prepare film materials via a regeneration method. The chemical structure and corresponding properties were characterized. The thermal decomposition process of film materials showed that with an increase of the heating rate, the maximum weight loss temperature gradually shifted to the higher-temperature region. Additionally, the combination of lignin with cellulose as composite films can effectively improve thermal stability. Furthermore, kinetics methods such as Kissing–Akahira–Sunose (KAS), Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO), and Friedman were used to calculate the average activation energy (E). This study proposed a facile method for preparing biobased multifunctional composite films using two kinds of naturally renewable materials.