An urgent goal is to enhance the economic and environmental value of biowaste via recycling and conversion techniques. Lignin, a plentiful plant polymer, holds significant potential for the development of sustainable multifunctional materials. Despite its advantages in terms of red-ox and pollutant adsorption properties, challenges in lignin valorization must address its chemical complexity and tendency to aggregate in water. We demonstrate that lignin and TiO₂ can be intimately combined through a versatile in situ hydrothermal strategy to obtain hybrid multifunctional nanostructures with tunable functionalities. An in-depth physicochemical analysis elucidates the structure–property–function correlations. The synergistic combination of lignin and TiO₂ in hybrid nanoparticles enhances ROS-scavenging/generating properties. Indeed, a lignin content of 20% wt/wt within nanostructures (TiO₂_DL200 sample) resulted in nanoparticles with improved antibacterial/antimycotic properties (15 mm increase in the diameter of bacterial growth inhibition (DDK) and 3-fold decrease in the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against fungi compared to neat TiO₂ nanoparticles and around 1.3 mm DDK increase and 3-fold MIC decrease against fungi compared to neat lignin) and 90% radical scavenging activity in only 2 minutes. In addition, TiO₂_DL200 nanoparticles achieved nearly 80% and 90% removal of methylene blue (MB) and fuchsin (F) dyes, respectively, by adsorption within 5 minutes. Conversely, by tuning the lignin content within the hybrid nanomaterial, a trade-off between the adsorption capacity and the photocatalytic activity is achieved, with MB and F removal efficiencies exceeding 80% in 120 minutes under UV-A conditions for TiO₂_DL50. These outcomes prove the potential uses of the obtained hybrid nanoparticles as antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal additives and for the decontamination of dyes in water remediation.

中文翻译：

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生物废物增值：用于细菌杀菌剂消毒和染料去除的多功能杂化木质素/TiO2纳米结构

一个紧迫的目标是通过回收和转化技术提高生物废物的经济和环境价值。木质素是一种丰富的植物聚合物，在开发可持续多功能材料方面具有巨大潜力。尽管木质素在氧化还原和污染物吸附性能方面具有优势，但木质素增值的挑战必须解决其化学复杂性和在水中聚集的倾向。我们证明，木质素和TiO ₂可以通过通用的原位水热策略紧密结合，以获得具有可调节功能的杂化多功能纳米结构。深入的物理化学分析阐明了结构-性质-功能的相关性。混合纳米颗粒中木质素和TiO ₂的协同组合增强了ROS 清除/产生性能。事实上，纳米结构（TiO ₂ _DL200 样品）中木质素含量为 20% wt/wt 时，纳米颗粒的抗菌/抗真菌性能得到改善（细菌生长抑制 (DDK) 直径增加 15 mm，最小抑制直径降低 3 倍）。与纯 TiO ₂纳米颗粒相比，对真菌的抑制浓度 (MIC)增加约 1.3 mm，与纯木质素相比，对真菌的 MIC 降低了 3 倍），并且仅 2 分钟即可实现 90% 的自由基清除活性。此外，TiO ₂ _DL200纳米粒子在5分钟内通过吸附分别实现了近80%和90%的亚甲基蓝（MB）和品红（F）染料去除率。相反，通过调节杂化纳米材料内的木质素含量，实现了吸附能力和光催化活性之间的权衡，在UV-A条件下，TiO ₂ _DL50的MB和F去除效率在120分钟内超过80%。这些结果证明了所获得的混合纳米粒子作为抗氧化剂、抗菌和抗真菌添加剂以及用于水修复中染料去污的潜在用途。