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SANS Study of Cellulose Extracted from Switchgrass

Journal Article · · Acta Crystallographica Section D: Biological Crystallography
AbstractLignocellulosic biomass, an abundant renewable natural resource, has the potential to play a major role in generation of renewable biofuels through its conversion to bio-ethanol. Unfortunately, it is a complex biological composite material that shows significant recalcitrance making it a cost-ineffective feedstock for bioethanol production. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) was employed to probe the multi-scale structure of cellulosic materials. Cellulose was extracted from milled native switchgrass and switchgrass that had undergone the dilute acid pretreatment method to disrupt the lignocellulose structure. The high-Q structural feature (Q > 0.07 Å-1) can be assigned to cellulose fibrils based on comparison with the switchgrass purified by solvent extraction of native and dilute acid pretreated and a commercial preparation of microcrystalline cellulose. Dilute acid pretreatment results in an increase in the smallest structural size, a decrease in the interconnectivity of the fibrils; and no change in the smooth domain boundaries at length scales larger than 1000 Å.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
992106
Journal Information:
Acta Crystallographica Section D: Biological Crystallography, Journal Name: Acta Crystallographica Section D: Biological Crystallography Journal Issue: N/A Vol. D66
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English