SANS Study of Cellulose Extracted from Switchgrass
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 Lab. (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, Vol. D66, Issue N/A
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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