SANS study of cellulose extracted from switchgrass.
Lignocellulosic biomass, which is an abundant renewable natural resource, has the potential to play a major role in the generation of renewable biofuels through its conversion to bioethanol. 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 from switchgrass that had undergone a dilute acid pretreatment method in order to disrupt the lignocellulose structure. The high-Q structural feature (Q > 0.07 Å(-1)) can be assigned to cellulose fibrils based on a comparison of cellulose purified by solvent extraction of native and dilute acid pretreated switchgrass 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.
Center for Structural Molecular Biology, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA. pingalis@ornl.gov
Sai Venkatesh
SV
Pingali
Volker S
VS
Urban
William T
WT
Heller
Joseph
J
McGaughey
Hugh M
HM
O'Neill
Marcus
M
Foston
Dean A
DA
Myles
Arthur J
AJ
Ragauskas
Barbara R
BR
Evans
D018533:Biomass; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D033363:Neutron Diffraction; D006109:Poaceae / Q000254:growth & development*; D053838:Scattering, Small Angle
D002482:Cellulose; C109691:microcrystalline cellulose