Synthesis of Low Transition Temperature Mixtures (LTTMs) From Natural Resources

This project ‘Synthesis of Low Transition Temperature Mixtures (LTTMs) from Natural Resources’ utilizes naturally occurring starting materials in the synthesis of green solvent, LTTM to extract lignin biopolymer from lignocellulosic biomass. LTTM is a combination of hydrogen bond donor (HBD) and hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA), a new class of solvent aimed to overcome the limitation of ionic liquids while shares some of its advantages. The material used as hydrogen bond donor is L-malic acid extracted from cactus, papaya fruit, and Luffa Cylindrica while hydrogen bond acceptors are L-proline, L-histidine, glycine, and choline chloride, all of which are existed naturally in living organism or plants. Compatibility of different combinations of HBD and HBA to form LTTM and varying their molar ratio are the subject of interest in this project.