title: Anaerobic degradation of microcrystalline cellulose: kinetics and micro-scale structure evolution.
abstract: The degradation kinetics and micro-scale structure change of microcrystalline cellulose during anaerobic biodegradation were investigated. A modified Logistic model was established to properly describe the kinetics, which showed good fitness and wide applicability for cellulose degradation. A maximum degradation rate of 0.14 g L(-1) h(-1) was achieved after cultivating for 51.5 h. This result was in good agreement with the scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction analysis. Channels of 400-500 nm size started to occur on the crystalline surface of cellulose at around the inflexion time. Accordingly, the crystallinity significantly decreased at this point, indicating a degradation of the crystalline structure zones by anaerobic bacteria. This study offers direct morphological evidence and quantitative analysis of the biodegradation process of cellulose, and is beneficial to a better understanding of the cellulose degradation mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Laboratory for Environmental Research and Technology, USTC-CityU Joint Advanced Research Centre, Suzhou 215123, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Zi-Xiang
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Kuan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wen-Wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D016015:Logistic Models; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D002482:Cellulose; C109691:microcrystalline cellulose