A highly efficient dispersant from black liquor for carbendazim suspension concentrate: Preparation, self-assembly behavior and investigation of dispersion mechanism

Compared with traditional approaches using synthetic amphiphilic block copolymers, alkyl chain cross-linked lignosulfonate (ASL) with high molecular weight (Mw) from black liquor was synthesized and characterized by GPC, functional group content, FTIR, and H-1-NMR measurement, and then used as water soluble amphiphilic biopolymer to prepare polymersomes via solution self-assembly. DLS illustrated the solution assembly behavior. The hollow nature of nanospheres was revealed by TEM. Moreover, the element analysis and XPS results revealed the hollow sphere structure with a hydrophilic core and a hydrophobic shell. It facilitated the efficient encapsulation of pesticide carbendazim into the hollow sphere via electrostatic interaction, which was investigated by SEM, TEM, elemental analysis and XPS. In our study, ASLs with different Mw from 20 kDa to 200 kDa all could exhibit the similar self-assembly behavior, which suggests that the hollow spheres and the encapsulation experiment were easily duplicated from ASL polymers without structure dependence. Furthermore, the dispersion properties of ASL in the carbendazim suspension concentrate (SC) system were also investigated, which showed that SC with ASL exhibited better dispersion property and rheological performance than that of NSF and commercial LS. Preparation and application of polymersomes via self-assembly from modified-lignin from black liquor provide a promising and effective scaffold which can be conveniently obtained from cheap and renewable bioresource. (C) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.