TreeGlue: fully wood-based adhesives for sustainable wood composite

Our currently commonly used wood adhesives are made from toxic compounds derived from fossil-based precursors, leading to problems in waste management and environmental pollution and posing concerns when used in living environments.

A kind of natural glue is lignin, one of the major compounds found in plants serving as a glue to bond cellulosic fibres together in the plant cell wall.

Additionally, technical lignin has excellent potential for wood adhesives because of its renewability, highly branched structure, and reactivity of their surface functional groups.

In this project, I will develop creative and sustainable functionalization approaches to convert lignin and tall oil fatty acid to epoxidized lignin oil and apply it as an environmentally benign resins and wood adhesive called TreeGlue.

In this process, bio-catalysts and carbon storage precursors will be investigated to simultaneously satisfy the requirement of greenness and efficiency.

Wood adhesives are tested under a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions to evaluate their heat and moisture resistance and environmental impacts.

This development could have significant implications for the wood industry, potentially reducing its reliance on fossil-based adhesives and helping to minimize environmental pollution.