Biomass-derived porous carbons are regarded as promising adsorbents due to their low cost, wide availability, and environmental friendliness. However, traditional porous carbons often exhibit narrow pore-size distributions and poor pore connectivity, limiting their adsorption performance. In this study, tobacco stems (TS) were used as the carbon precursor, and CaCl2 and K2CO3 were employed as activators to construct a hierarchical porous carbon (TPC@CaCl2+K2CO3) with a high specific surface area (2437 m2 g- 1), large pore volum (1.779 cm3 g- 1), and well-connected pore channels via an in situ co-precipitation strategy. Its adsorption performance toward tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) and the corresponding adsorption mechanism were systematically investigated. TPC@CaCl2+K2CO3 exhibits a maximum theoretical adsorption capacity of 1189 mg g- 1, surpassing most reported values for biomass-derived carbons. Mechanism analysis indicated that the efficient adsorption of TCH was governed by the synergistic contribution of pore filling, electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bonding, and pi-pi interactions. In addition, the material demonstrates strong adsorption toward multiple antibiotics, indicating broad-spectrum applicability. This work provides an effective approach for converting biomass waste into highperformance antibiotic adsorbents and offers systematic insights into the structure-performance relationship of porous carbon-based antibiotic sorbents.

Lignin-derived hard carbon is considered a promising anode material for sodium-ion batteries due to its low cost and high carbon content. However, severe π-π stacking of carbon layers and insufficient closed pore content limit its sodium storage performance. Herein, we propose a molecular engineering strategy involving the selective conversion of aliphatic OH in alkali lignin into side-chain acetyl groups to precisely regulate the pyrolysis behavior of alkali lignin. This modification can delay the excessive decomposition of functional groups at low temperatures, thereby alleviating the structural densification of carbon layers resulting from severe π-π stacking during high-temperature carbonization. Moreover, the cleavage of side-chain acetyl during pyrolysis triggers a pronounced self-activation effect, yielding a microporous carbon intermediate with an ultrahigh microporosity of 97.04 %. The resulting HC features wide interlayer spacing, short and thin carbon layers, and abundant closed pores (0.193 cm3/g), which collectively reduce diffusion resistance and shorten the transport path of sodium ions in the low-potential region. Consequently, the optimized HC anode achieves a reversible specific capacity of 347.6 mAh/g with an ICE of 81.2 %, maintaining a remarkable rate performance of 229.5 mAh/g even at 2 A/g. This work offers important insights for the precise structural control of HC.

Hard carbon materials are considered as one of the most commercially promising anode materials for sodium-ion batteries because of their abundant resources, cost-effectiveness and stable cycling performance. However, to rationally regulate the graphitic microcrystalline and pore structure of hard carbon toward advanced sodium storage performance remains a daunting challenge. Here, a simple molecular engineering strategy is developed to synthesize hard carbon featuring diverse graphitic microstructures and pore structures by modulating the polymerization degree of cellulose through pretreatment. Remarkably, cellulose with an appropriate degree of polymerization is cross-linked during the pyrolysis process, forming large layer spacings and multi-layer short graphite microcrystalline structures, resulting in the formation of a rich closed-pore structure. As a consequence, the optimized hard carbon delivers a reversible capacity of 344.5 mA h g-1 at 0.05 A g-1 and a superior rate performance of 251.2 mA h g-1 at 2 A g-1. Moreover, it demonstrates a plateau capacity retention rate of 85.2% under high current density conditions. Additionally, dynamic analysis and in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) elucidate the electrochemical advantages and sodium storage mechanisms. This study fundamentally sheds light on the molecular design of cellulose-based hard carbon materials thereby showcasing their substantial potential for application in cost-effective and environmentally friendly energy storage devices.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have become a focal point in large-scale energy storage research owing to the inherent economic advantages and the abundant sodium reserves. In sodium-ion battery that employ hard carbon as the anode, the binder is crucial for ensuring robust adhesion between the active material and the current collector, addressing issues such as numerous surface defects and inadequate mechanical properties of hard carbon, thereby maintaining electrode integrity and enhancing electrochemical performance. Polyacrylonitrile multi-copolymer LA133, an environmentally friendly aqueous binder with superior functional groups diversity compared to the conventional PVDF binder, nonetheless suffers from excessive viscosity, easy polarization, and poor electrolyte resistance. To address these challenges, this study proposes a novel composite water-soluble binder system (LA133/LS) through a molecular engineering strategy, combining LA133 with the biomass-derived sodium lignosulfonate (LS). The cyano groups (-C equivalent to N) in LA133 form robust chemical adsorptions with defect sites on the hard carbon surface. Simultaneously, the amide (-CONH-), carboxyl (-COOH), and sulfonic acid (-SO3H) groups in LS interact to reversibly capture Na+, facilitating its transport within the electrode and improving Na+ desolvation through Lewis acid-base interactions. The bulky aromatic framework and amphiphilicity of LS boost the binder's dispersibility, effectively dissipating stress during charge and discharge cycles, and optimizing the mechanical-electrochemical synergy of the electrode. Experimental results show that hard carbon electrodes using LA133/LS (the quality ratio is 1:1) as the binder achieve an initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) of 83.5 %, exhibit an average reversible specific capacity of 353.17 mAh g- 1 at a current density of 0.05 A g- 1, and forming a stable SEI film predominantly inorganic with a certain amount of organic content. These results indicate that the LA133/LS binder can effectively regulate the interfacial molecular structure and properties, significantly enhancing the capacity and rate performance of sodium-ion batteries. Consequently, the binder offers a novel material design paradigm for the development of highly stable sodium-ion batteries.

Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technologies are critical for alleviating global freshwater scarcity. However, the high desorption energy consumption of conventional adsorptive materials severely hinders their widespread application, with enhancing adsorption‐desorption efficiency remaining a core challenge. This study presents a novel sorption‐type atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) material fabricated via in situ crosslinking of sodium alginate with calcium lignosulfonate and loading of polypyrrole and LiCl, achieving two key performance enhancements: the vertically layered pore structure significantly reduces the diffusion resistance of internal water vapour. Under conditions of 95% relative humidity (RH), its adsorption capacity reaches as high as 5.7493 g g −1 . After moisture absorption in a 30% RH environment, the desorption rate can reach 0.02469 g g −1 min −1 . Notably, both of these performance metrics surpass those of many currently available advanced adsorbents. The integrated thermoelectric module constructs an adsorption‐desorption‐energy recovery closed‐loop system, achieving a water harvesting capacity of 2.42 L m −2 day −1 . During desorption, a maximum power density of 3.742 W m −2 can be attained, effectively reducing the energy consumption of atmospheric water harvesting through thermal energy recovery. These findings advance water treatment technology toward more efficient and energy‐saving practical applications, offering a promising solution for sustainable water resource management in arid regions.

Lignin-derived hard carbon shows potential as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries(SIBs) due to its high carbon content and aromatic structure,but its limited reversible adsorption sites and low conductivity hinder performance.This study introduces a self-activation strategy to optimize carbon layer stacking and surface functional groups in microporous carbon,significantly enhancing sodium storage capacity and rate performance.By utilizing oxygen-containing functional groups in organic solvent lignin,we induce micropore formation during pyrolysis,effectively regulating graphite domains and closed pores structures without disrupting carbon layer growth.Unstacked graphene layers serve as efficient electron transport channels and expose additional adsorption sites,simultaneously increasing sodium storage capacity and intrinsic conductivity.The resultant S-OLHC demonstrates a remarkable sodium storage capacity of 358 mA h/g at 0.05 A/g after 200 cycles and maintains 231 mA h/g after 1000 cycles at 2 A/g.This strategy eliminates the need for additional pore-forming agents,offering a simpler,more efficient,and environmentally friendly approach compared to traditional activation methods.This work advances the rational design of high-performance biomass-derived hard carbon for SIBs by leveraging inherent structural characteristics and provides a sustainable low-carbon strategy for lignin valorization in renewable energy storage.

Preparation of a high adhesion and dispersibility sodium carboxymethyl cellulose/sodium lignosulfonate(CMC/LS) water-soluble binder elucidated the impact of functional groups on the electrode interface.

Binders are crucial for maintaining the integrity of an electrode and are confronted with the imperative for multifunctionality. Herein, we have developed and synthesized an entirely biomass-based water-soluble binder with outstanding adhesion, conductivity, flowability, and dispersibility for the hard carbon (HC) anode. Specifically, MXene (Ti3C2Tx) reduces the amount of HC graphite domain imperfections, the cross-linked carboxymethyl chitosan (CCS) chain facilitates Na+ movement, and the amphiphilic nature of lignosulfonate (LS) enhances the distribution of active material. As a result, the HC anode achieves an initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) of 88 % and high-capacity retention of 110 % after 100 cycles. This work promotes the progress of green energy in parallel with the promotion of the high-value utilization of biomass.

To promote the application of lignin in Pickering emulsions, the influences of six lignin particles with different hydrophobicity on the emulsifying and stabilizing performances for oil phases with different polarity to form oil in water Pickering emulsions were investigated. The results showed that the best emulsification performance was achieved when the three-phase (oil-water-lignin particle) contact angle was close to 90 & DEG;. Alkyl-bridged lignin particles with stronger hydrophobicity have a better emulsification effect on cyclohexane with less polarity, while carboxymethylated lignin particles with stronger hydrophilicity have better emulsification effect on n-heptanol with higher polarity. Furthermore, the stability of Pickering emulsions can be improved by appropriately increasing the surface charge and decreasing the particular size of the lignin particles.

Amorphous carbon monoliths with tunable microstructures are candidate anodes for future lithium-based energy storage. Enhancing lithium storage capability and solid-state diffusion kinetics are the precondition for practical applications. Transforming intrinsic oxygen-rich defects into active sites and engineering enlarged interlayer spacing are of great importance. Herein, a novel explosion strategy is designed based on oxalate pyrolysis producing CO and CO2 to successfully prepare lignin-derived carbon monolith (LSCM) with active carbonyl (C═O) groups and enlarged interlayer spacing. Explosion promotes the demethylation of methoxyl groups and cleavage of carboxyl groups to form C═O groups. CO2 etches carbon atoms in a short time to improve the heteroatom level, expanding the interlayer spacing. ZnC2O4 is decomposed at 400 °C, simultaneously producing CO and CO2, which constructs less C═O groups and large interlayer spacing. MgC2O4 is decomposed at 450 and 480 °C, staged-weakly producing CO and CO2, which constructs more C═O groups and larger interlayer spacing. CaC2O4 is decomposed at 480 and 700 °C, staged-uniformly producing CO and CO2, which constructs abundant C═O groups and largest interlayer spacing. The LSCM prepared by staged-uniform explosion exhibits high lithium storage capacity, superior rate capability, and cycling performance. The assembled lithium ion capacitor device achieves excellent energy/power densities of 78 Wh kg-1/100 W kg-1 and superior durability (capacitance retention of 8 4.6% after 20,000 cycles). This work gives a novel insight to engineer advanced oxygen-functionalized carbons for enhanced lithium storage.

The world production of chemicals and fuels is predominantly based on the conversion of nonrenewable raw materials, such as coal, natural gas, and oil. Nowadays, there are increasing ways to produce fuels from biomass, such as producing fuel alcohol from lignocellulose, obtaining liquid fuels through carbon bond coupling of fermentation products to produce fuels. Herein, we transformed the short-chain acetone-n-butanol-ethanol (ABE) into long-chain straight-chain, branched, and cyclic jet-fuel-range products via self-condensation of acetone, Guerbet reaction of ABE, Pd/C-KOH/K3PO4 catalyzed alkylation, and the separation was carried out simultaneously. After the condensation reaction of ABE catalyzed by KOH/K3PO4 with or without Pd/C at high temperature, the ABE can be transformed into long-chain substances ranging from C7 to C12 (lower than 5% yield), which can be used as the precursor of the high-value fuels. Furthermore, most of the water in the ABE solution can be removed, and the water content decreased from 60 % to about 5%–8%. Future work will be concentrated on more liquid–liquid equilibria data of the ABE-water system at different temperatures and the design of highly-efficient catalysts to improve the reaction rate and the selectivity to the desired straight-chain, branched, and cyclic C7-C12 products.

The development of high‐performance carbon anode for sodium‐ion batteries is limited by the sluggish kinetics and structural instability. Expanded interlayer spacing, nitrogen doping, and mesoporous structure engineering have emerged as promising strategies to overcome these challenges. Simultaneously achieving graphene nanodomains construction, high‐efficient nitrogen doping, and rational mesoporous structure engineering is challenging. Herein, a strategy of pyrolyzing SiO 2 @ lignin amine urea‐formaldehyde resin is proposed for deliberate manipulation of graphene nanodomains, edge‐nitrogen doping, and specific mesoporous distribution in amorphous lignin‐derived carbon based on polycondensation‐template. The obtained carbon material exhibits a nitrogen‐doping level of 6.03 at% with a high edge‐nitrogen ratio of up to 84.4%, high‐ connectivity mesoporous structure, and graphene nanodomains with expanded interlayer spacing. The optimized carbon material delivers a reversible capacity of 234 mAh g −1 at 100 mA g −1 , superior rate capability of 129 mAh g −1 at 2 A g −1 , and excellent cycling stability. In addition, the surface‐dominated sodium‐ion storage mechanism is identified by in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Furthermore, the optimized carbon can function as an outstanding anode for full cells. This work proposes a new avenue for designing high‐performance carbon for low‐cost and high‐rate sodium‐ion batteries.

Bio-based 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD) has attracted more and more attention due to the relatively high cost of its petro-based production and the emerging economic advantages of bio-based 2,3-BD production processes. 2,3-BD has wide applications in the chemical, food, cosmetics, agriculture, pharmaceutical, and aerospace area, especially producing the monomer of the polybutadiene synthetic rubber. Thus, recent advances on the properties, production, and application of bio-based 2, 3-BD were critically reviewed. With great efforts in the screening of 2, 3-BD producing bacteria and factors affecting the productivity of 2,3-BD, the concentration of 2,3-BD in the fermentation broth can be greater than 150 g/L, even up to 178 g/L. On the other hand, the high boiling point and high hydrophilicity of 2,3-BD and the complex composition and low product concentration in the fermentation broth made the conventional distillation extremely challenging for the industrial production of 2.3-BD by the biological method. It is crucial to develop an efficient and low-cost separation process for 2,3-BD. The recent advances in the development of separation processes for the in-situ or ex-situ recovery of 2, 3-BD from the fermentation broth or aqueous solutions are thoroughly reviewed. Some emerging separation technologies, including vacuum evaporation/distillation, solvent extraction, reactive extraction, adsorption, salting-out extraction, salting-out, sugaring-out extraction, and pervaporation, were developed to simplify the separation process. After the techno-economic evaluation of the hybrid process with the emerging techniques, it is demonstrated that the novel methods can greatly reduce energy consumption(up to 54.8%) and downstream separation cost(25.8-61.2%).

In this work, we developed a novel technique to prepare pH-responsive charge reversal nanospheres based on softwood kraft lignin (SKL) through two steps modification and high efficient self-assembly. SKL was first grafted with imidazole groups by Mannich reaction and further fabricated into acetylated histidine-modified lignin (AceSKL-HIS) via acetylation reaction. Ace-SKL-HIS nanospheres (Ace-SKL-HIS NPs) were prepared by fast vacuum evaporation method, their effective diameters (ED) were around 100 nm, exhibited low Polydispersity Index(PDI, < 0.2) and good shape. Ace-SKL-HIS NPs demostrated excellent pH response performance with charge reversal under acidic environment. Then, curcumin was applied as a model drug to prepare drug-loaded nanospheres (Ace-SKL-HIS@CUR). The drug loading degree (DL%) and encapsulation efficiency (EE%) were 22.34 % and 70.76 %, respectively. The in vitro release behavior of curcumin exhibited excellent pH dependent release property, 76.82 % release at pH 5.7 while only 12.92 % at pH 7.4 in 120 h. Furthermore, in vitro cytotoxicity studies showed that Ace-SKL-HIS@CUR had potent anti-tumor effect, with IC50 of 28.16 mu g/mL. This study constructed a promising nanocarrier platform for cancer drug delivery, which paved a new way to the high valueadded application of lignin.

Bio-based isobutanol has attracted more and more attention due to its wide application and excellent fuel performance. Compared with ethanol, isobutanol has higher energy density, lower oxygen content, and hygroscopicity, making it an ideal gasoline additive or substitute. Bio-based isobutanol has been commercially produced from a variety of renewable feedstock, including corn, wheat, sorghum, barley, and sugar cane by using a yeast biocatalyst. The existing facility of ethanol plants is acquired to separate and purify isobutanol from the fermentation broth, meaning that the energy-intensive distillation process still cannot be replaced. There are still some challenges in the production of bio-based isobutanol, such as low product concentration, unexpected impurities, high separation cost, thus the development of an efficient and low-cost downstream separation process has become one of the keys to the industrial production of bio-based isobutanol. The separation methods for isobutanol recovery, including vacuum evaporation, adsorption, pervaporation, gas stripping, solvent extraction, salting-out, salting-out extraction, are summarized in this review. An outlook on the challenges and opportunities of isobutanol separation is also described in this review.

As the traditional anode material of lithium-ion batteries, tin dioxide (SnO2) has the characteristics of a high theoretical capacity and stable crystal structure. However, the alloying/de-alloying reaction between tin and lithium ions causes volume expansion and continuously generates an SEI film, which causes the electrode to fall off the current collector and the capacity fade rapidly. Generally, a composite of carbon materials and SnO2 can alleviate the expansion and pulverization phenomena. However, the microstructure of carbon materials is complex and changeable, which makes it difficult to definitively state the influence mechanism of the microstructure on the lithium storage performance of composite materials. Here, three kinds of lignin-based porous carbons (LPCs) with different microstructural characteristics, along with a high graphitization, high specific surface area and hierarchical porosity, are obtained by regulating the process of gas exfoliation and in situ activation. Furthermore, a series of LPC/SnO2 composites are obtained by an ultrasonic dispersion and ball milling method. Electrochemical property results show that the hierarchical porous LPCs are more conducive to the dispersion/coating of SnO2 nanoparticles and that the reversible specific capacity of the electrode material increases from 64 to 620 mA h g(-1), effectively mitigating the expansion and pulverization of SnO2 during the lithium storage process.

生物基来源的聚合物具有生物相容性高、无毒易降解等优势,近些年来作为药物载体在生物医药领域受到了广泛的关注.人体内的生理环境存在pH差异,利用pH作为刺激响应的信号,可以赋予聚合物纳米载药系统理想的靶向释药性能.本综述着眼于pH敏感性的生物基聚合物纳米粒子,揭示了纳米载药粒子中化学键断裂与质子化作用两种pH响应的控释机制,并针对两者的控释特点进行了分析总结.在此基础上,介绍了几种生物基药物载体的pH控释研究及其在生物医药领域的应用进展,并提出了目前利用各种生物基材料作为药物载体存在的问题.最后,针对目前存在的载药量低、敏感性不强等问题,提出了可采用多种方式联合载药、多重刺激响应结合等方式进行深入研究的展望.

Isobutanol is a widely used platform compound and a raw material for synthesizing many high value-added compounds. It also has excellent fuel properties and is an ideal gasoline additive or substitute with a very broad development space. Isobutanol production by biological fermentation has the advantages of a comprehensive source of raw materials, low cost, environmental protection, and sustainability. However, it also has disadvantages such as many impurities, low isobutanol concentration, and difficulty separating the water + isobutanol azeotrope. Thus, it is necessary to explore an appropriate downstream separation process for the water + isobutanol azeotrope. K2CO3 with a strong salting-out effect was used as the salting-out agent, and the salting-out of isobutanol from aqueous solutions was investigated at 298.15 K. The effect of the initial salt concentration in the aqueous solution, the recovery of isobutanol, and the effect of dehydration were investigated in detail. The e-NRTL-RK model was employed to generate the binary parameters for isobutanol and water, and electrolyte pair parameters for water/isobutanol and ions to reproduce the phase diagram with high accuracy. The processes of solvent extractive distillation, and salting-out + distillation were simulated by Aspen Plus. The energy consumptions for the solvent-based and salting-out-based processes were compared. The salting-out + distillation process turned out to be more energy-saving than the solvent extraction process.

Enzymatically hydrolyzed lignin extracted from residues in the biorefinery industry was hydrothermally combined with zinc acetate under alkaline conditions to prepare a low molecular weight lignin/zinc oxide compound (LWL/ZnO), which was then carbonized and etched to obtain Lignin nano-carbon material (NLC). After characterizing its morphology and structure, it is found that NLC has a nano-particle structure with a particle size of less than 50 nm, with a specific surface area of 833.25 m(2)/g, and a mesoporosity as high as 58.07%. The mesopores with a pore diameter of 10 nm are the most abundant. The electrochemical performance test results show that NLC as a lithium-ion battery anode material has good cycle performance and rate performance, and its reversible specific capacity can maintain 705 mA.h/g after 200 cycles at a current density of 200 mA/g.

In this study, we establish a novel highly efficient preparation process to prepare homogeneous and size controllable pH-responsive lignin nanosphere (LN). Orthogonal experiments have been performed to investigate the effects of the factors (bath temperature, lignin concentration, starting volume, cooling temperature) on the effective diameters (ED) and polydispersity index (PDI) of LN. The fast vacuum evaporation process could also encapsulate drugs in the one-pot process, with the solvent acetone recycled simultaneously. The drug release based on pH-responsive have been investigated. As a result, homogenous LN with targeted size (within 100 similar to 400 nm) had been obtained under the preparation conditions suggested by the established Models. The matrix entrapment efficiency of LN was 47 %. The lignin encapsulating Ibuprofen nanospheres showed excellent pH responsive release. It had just 18 % released at pH 1.2, while over 90 % at pH7.5 for 2-6 h. This study introduced a highly efficient way to prepare lignin nanospheres and a new strategy to prepare pH-responsive drugs.