title: Characterization of the Micromorphology and Topochemistry of Poplar Wood during Mild Ionic Liquid Pretreatment for Improving Enzymatic Saccharification.
abstract: Ionic liquids (ILs) as designer solvents have been applied in biomass pretreatment to increase cellulose accessibility and therefore improve the enzymatic hydrolysis. We investigated the characterization of the micromorphology and the topochemistry of poplar wood during 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate pretreatment with mild conditions (90 °C for 20 and 40 min) by multiple microscopic techniques (FE-SEM, CLSM, and CRM). Chemical composition analysis, XRD, cellulase adsorption isotherm, and enzymatic hydrolysis were also performed to monitor the variation of substrate properties. Our results indicated that the biomass conversion was greatly enhanced (from 20.57% to 73.64%) due to the cell wall deconstruction and lignin dissolution (29.83% lignin was removed after incubation for 40 min), rather than the decrystallization or crystallinity transformation of substrates. The mild ILs pretreatment, with less energy input, can not only enhance enzymatic hydrolysis, but also provide a potential approach as the first step in improving the sequential pretreatment effectiveness in integrated methods. This study provides new insights on understanding the ILs pretreatment with low temperature and short duration, which is critical for developing individual and/or combined pretreatment technologies with reduced energy consumption.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. shengchen@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. zhangxunyy@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. jjling814@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ling
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Laboratory of Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China. xfx315@bjfu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002480:Cellulase / Q000737:chemistry*; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry*; D006868:Hydrolysis; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D059828:Plant Cells / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure; D032107:Populus / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D014934:Wood / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D007093:Imidazoles; D002482:Cellulose; D002480:Cellulase; C518739:1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
keywords: enzymatic hydrolysis; ionic liquid pretreatment; micromorphology; mild conditions; poplar cell wall; topochemistry