Organic-inorganic building block of phytic acid intercalated graphene oxide for performance enhancement of plant-derived adhesives

The introduction of 2D graphene into the soybean protein (SP) adhesive is expected to enhance its mechanical performance. However, insufficient binding of the two materials inevitably leads to the resulting composite having limited mechanical strength. Using phytic acid (PA) and a supramolecular self-assembly strategy, hard graphene oxide (GO) was first assembled with PA to form a supramolecular polymer, PA-co-GO, that has a “bricks and mortar” structure as a result of strong non-covalent interactions. PA-co-GO was then further combined with SP in the presence of the long-chain epoxy compound neopentyl glycol diglycidyl ether (NG) to produce a novel biopolymer-based adhesive PA-co-GO/NG/SP. The prepared adhesive has a moisture-insensitive interface as a result of non-covalent/covalent bonds and a “bricks and mortar” microstructure that allows the dissipation of energy, resulting in an enhancement in the water-resistant bonding strength of the material, with a 345% increase in its wet bonding strength compared with the unmodified SP adhesive. Additionally, the combination of the heat shielding of the GO and catalytic carbonization of PA resulted in the adhesive having excellent flame retardant properties. The structure and morphology of the materials were characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy , and solid-state 13 C NMR. Overall, a new clean route for preparing green high-performance biopolymer-based adhesives is described, with potential applications for sustainable agricultural byproducts.