3D printing of crude lignocellulosic biomass extracts containing hemicellulose and lignin

Using lignocellulosic biomass, which is composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, as a biopolymer resource in various polymeric material applications is an attractive option due to its abundance, biodegradability and renewability. Cellulose is the most popular member of the biopolymer trio for material applications, but despite constituting around half of a lignocellulosic biomass, attention hemicellulose and lignin receive is restricted in this sense, which gets even more limited when it comes to their utilization for 3D printing. A novel practical procedure is developed to address this issue, which enables the 3D printing of the alkaline soluble portion of corn cobs in its crude form, without any purification or modification and without using any auxiliary polymers or additives. The alkaline soluble phase forms a thermoreversible cold-setting gel upon the partial evaporation of its water content. The gel shows adequate flow at mild temperatures during printing while retaining the intended shape at room temperature once it’s deposited on to the build platform. A printing temperature 45 °C together with a water content of 83 % are determined as the ideal parameters for 3D printing of the extracts. Following the 3D printing process, the models are immersed in an ethanol bath to permanently fix their shape.