Chuanfu Liu

Fractionation of Bagasse into Cellulose, Hemicelluloses, and Lignin with Ionic Liquid Treatment Followed by Alkaline Extraction

Lignocellulose materials are potentially valuable resources for transformation into biofuels and bioproducts. However, their complicated structures make it difficult to fractionate them into cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin, which limits their utilization and economical conversion into value-added products. This study proposes a novel and feasible fractionation method based on complete dissolution of bagasse in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C(4)mim]Cl) followed by precipitation in acetone/water (9:1, v/v) and extraction with 3% NaOH solution. The ionic liquid [C(4)mim]Cl was easily recycled after concentration and treatment with acetonitrile. (1)H NMR analysis confirmed that there was no obvious difference between the recycled [C(4)mim]Cl and fresh material. Bagasse was fractionated with this method to 36.78% cellulose, 26.04% hemicelluloses, and 10.51% lignin, accounting for 47.17 and 33.85% of the original polysaccharides and 54.62% of the original lignin, respectively. The physicochemical properties of the isolated fractions were characterized by chemical analysis, high-performance anion exchange chromatography (HPAEC), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and (1)H and 2D (13)C-(1)H correlation (HSQC) nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The results showed that the acetone-soluble lignin and alkaline lignin fractions had structures similar to those of milled wood lignin (MWL). The easy extraction of the noncellulose components from homogeneous bagasse solution and amorphous regenerated materials resulted in the relatively high purity of cellulosic fraction (>92%). The hemicellulosic fraction was mainly 4-O-methyl-D-glucuronoxylans with some α-L-arabinofuranosyl units substituted at C-2 and C-3.

An ultralight, elastic, cost-effective, and highly recyclable superabsorbent from microfibrillated cellulose fibers for oil spillage cleanup

The fabrication of superabsorbents for oil spillage cleanup is a hot topic today. However, the development of a low cost and highly efficient superabsorbent is still a big challenge. In this paper, we demonstrate a simple method to produce a low-cost, ultralight, elastic, and highly recyclable superabsorbent from renewable cellulose fibers via simple and environmentally friendly microfibrillation treatment and freeze-drying. Since microfibrillation of cellulose fibers resulted in hierarchical fibers that possess both fiber bulk and considerable microfibrils on the fiber surface, hierarchically porous sponges with ultralow density (0.0024 g cm−3) and high porosity (up to 99.84%) were obtained after freeze drying. The porous sponges after hydrophobic modification were elastic and exhibited rapid and outstanding absorption performances for various oils and organic solvents. The hydrophobic superabsorbent could selectively absorb oil from an oil–water mixture and showed an ultra-high absorption capacity of 88–228 g g−1, which is comparable to those of other novel carbon-based superabsorbents. More importantly, the superabsorbent showed excellent flexibility and elasticity, and could be repeatedly squeezed without structure failure (more than 30 times). The absorbed oil could be readily and rapidly recovered by means of simple mechanical squeezing, while the superabsorbent could be reused at once without any other treatment. The superabsorbent showed excellent recyclability and could be reused for at least 30 cycles while still maintaining high oil absorption capacity (137 g g−1 for pump oil). These advantages make the superabsorbent an ideal alternative for oil spillage cleaning.

Homogeneous Modification of Cellulose in Ionic Liquid with Succinic Anhydride Using N-Bromosuccinimide as a Catalyst

The homogeneous chemical modification of cellulose with succinic anhydride was investigated in a solvent system containing 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ionic liquid and dimethylsulfoxide using N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) as a catalyst. The results showed that the degree of substitution of the succinylated cellulosic samples, in the range of 0.24-2.31, noticeably increased as compared with the products without any catalysts, indicating that NBS was a novel efficient catalyst for cellulose succinoylation in ionic liquids. Fourier transform infrared and solid-state cross-polarization/magic angle spinning (13)C NMR spectroscopies also provided evidence of succinoylation reaction. The results indicated that the reaction of hydroxyl groups at C-6, C-2, and C-3 positions in cellulose occurred. The thermal stability of the succinylated cellulose was found to decrease upon chemical modification.

Xylan-based temperature/pH sensitive hydrogels for drug controlled release

Xylan-based temperature/pH sensitive hydrogels were prepared by the crosslinking copolymerization of xylan with N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAm) and acrylic acid (AA) using N,Ń-methylenebis-acrylamide (MBA) as a cross-linker and 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone as a photoinitiator via ultraviolet irradiation. The influence of the NIPAm, AA and MBA amount on properties of xylan-based hydrogels was discussed. The morphology and interactions of hydrogels were characterized by SEM and FTIR. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of hydrogels was investigated by DSC. The results indicated that the LCST of hydrogels emerged at around 34°C and increased with increasing the AA content. The drug encapsulation efficiency of as-prepared hydrogels reached to 97.60% and the cumulative release rate of acetylsalicylic acid was 90.12% and 26.35% in the intestinal and gastric fluid, respectively. Xylan-based hydrogels were proved to be biocompatible with NIH3T3 cell by MTT assay and showed the promising application as drug carriers for the intestinal-targeted oral drug delivery.

Preparation and characterization of double crosslinked hydrogel films from carboxymethylchitosan and carboxymethylcellulose.

A novel crosslinked hydrogel film was prepared from carboxymethylchitosan (CMCS) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) by ionical and covalent crosslinking with CaSO4 and genipin, respectively. The swelling ratio of the crosslinked CMCS/CMC hydrogel films was investigated at different pH solutions (1-9), and the results indicated that the crosslinked hydrogels had the swelling-deswelling properties with two primary peaks of swelling ratio at pH 3 and 7. The surface morphologies of the crosslinked hydrogels at different pH values provided evidences of the swelling-deswelling properties. The mechanical properties of the hydrogel films were also examined. The ionical and covalent crosslinking were found to have the primary impact on the toughness and max load, respectively, of the crosslinked hydrogels. The cells comparatively cultured on the crosslinked hydrogels and the negative and positive controls suggested the biocompatibility of the crosslinked CMCS/CMC films. This kind of hydrogel films have potential application in drug delivery vehicles and skin tissue engineering.

A feasible process for furfural production from the pre-hydrolysis liquor of corncob via biochar catalysts in a new biphasic system

A feasible approach was developed to produce furfural from the pre-hydrolysis liquor of corncob via biochar catalysts as the solid acid catalyst in a new biphasic system with dichloromethane (DCM) as the organic phase and the concentrated pre-hydrolysis liquor (CPHL) containing NaCl as the aqueous phase. The biochar catalyst possessing many acidity groups (SO3H, COOH and phenolic OH groups) was prepared by the carbonization and sulfonation process of the corncob hydrolyzed residue. The influence of the catalytic condition on furfural yield and selectivity was comparatively studied. It was found that 81.14% furfural yield and 83.0% furfural selectivity were obtained from CPHL containing 5wt% xylose using this biochar catalyst in the CPHL-NaCl/DCM biphasic system at 170°C for 60min. In addition, with the regeneration process, this catalyst displayed the high performance and excellent recyclability.

Isolation and characterization of lignins from Eucalyptus tereticornis (12ABL).

A three-step sequential extraction-precipitation method was used to isolate lignin from Eucalyptus tereticornis. The ball-milled eucalyptus was extracted with 96% dioxane, 50% dioxane, and 80% dioxane containing 1% NaOH at boiling temperature, consecutively resulting in solubilization of lignin and hemicelluloses. By precipitating such solutions into 70% aqueous ethanol, the hemicelluloses were removed substantially although there were still some carbohydrates left over, especially for lignin fraction extracted by 50% dioxane. Lignins dissolved in the 70% ethanol solutions were recovered via concentration and precipitation into acidified water. About 37% of the original lignin was released following such procedure whereas only 13.5% can be isolated by traditional milled wood lignin (MWL) method. The obtained lignin fractions were analyzed by high performance anion exchange chromatography (HPAEC) following acid hydrolysis for sugar composition of the contaminating carbohydrates and characterized by quantitative (31)P NMR as well as two-dimensional heteronuclear single-quantum coherence ((13)C-(1)H) NMR. The results showed that 96% aqueous dioxane extraction of ball-milled wood under conditions used in this study resulted in lignin preparation with very similar structures and sugar composition as traditional MWL. Therefore extracting ball-milled wood with 96% aqueous dioxane produced lignin in 33.6% yield, which makes it very attractive as an alternative to the traditional MWL method. However further extraction with 50% aqueous dioxane or 80% aqueous dioxane containing 1% NaOH gave just a little more lignins with different carbohydrate compositions from those in MWL. The eucalyptus lignins obtained were syringyl and guaiacyl type units. Lignin fraction obtained from 96% dioxane extraction was found to have more phenolic hydroxyl and less aliphatic hydroxyl than the other two preparations.

Ring-Opening Graft Polymerization of Propylene Carbonate onto Xylan in an Ionic Liquid

The amidine organocatalyst 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) is an effective nucleophilic catalyst. Biocomposites with tuneable properties were successfully synthesized by ring-opening graft polymerization (ROGP) of propylene carbonate (PC) onto xylan using DBU as a catalyst in the ionic liquid (IL) 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Amim]Cl). The effects of reaction temperature, reaction time and the molar ratio of PC to anhydroxylose units (AXU) in xylan were investigated. The physico-chemical properties of xylan-graft-poly(propylene carbonate) (xylan-g-PPC) copolymers were characterised by FT-IR, NMR, TGA/DTG, AFM and tensile analysis. The FT-IR and NMR results indicated the successful attachment of PPC onto xylan. TGA/DTG suggested the increased thermal stability of xylan after the attachment of PPC side chains. AFM analysis revealed details about the molecular aggregation of xylan-g-PPC films. The results also showed that with the increased DS of xylan-g-PPC copolymers, the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the films decreased, while the elongation at break increased.

Fabrication of a highly elastic nanocomposite hydrogel by surface modification of cellulose nanocrystals

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) pre-grafted with polymerizable groups have been used as nano crosslinking joints and nano reinforcements to synthesize highly-elastic hydrogels. However, the polymerizable CNCs usually have dispersion problems during hydrogel fabrication because of the hydrophobicity of the grafted polymerizable groups. In this study, TEMPO oxidation was successfully utilized to overcome this problem by introducing more hydrophilic groups on the CNCs surface, facilitating their homogeneous distribution in aqueous solution and hydrogels. Furthermore, AC and UC gels crosslinked by CNCs that were pre-grafted with acryloyl chloride (AC) and 10-undecylenoyl chloride (UC) on their surfaces were fabricated for finding out a more effective way to synthesize stronger nanocomposite hydrogels. The results showed that UC gels showed both higher tensile strength and higher elongation than the corresponding AC gels. It was shown that UC gels, which had longer grafted carbon chain lengths on CNC surfaces, possessed a better energy dissipation capacity under stretching than AC gels. The water swelling ratios of UC gels (13.0–36.7 g g−1) were also much higher than those of the corresponding AC gels (11.2–21.0 g g−1) as a result of larger spaces to hold water in the hydrogel network. This work gives an insight into the influence of carbon chain length on the properties of CNC crosslinked nanocomposite hydrogels, and provides an effective way to fabricate nanocomposite hydrogels with higher mechanical strength.

Dual-component system dimethyl sulfoxide/LiCl as a solvent and catalyst for homogeneous ring-opening grafted polymerization of ε-caprolactone onto xylan.

The preparation of xylan-graft-poly(ε-caprolactone) (xylan-g-PCL) copolymers was investigated by homogeneous ring-opening polymerization (ROP) in a dual-component system containing Lewis base LiCl and strong polar aprotic solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). DMSO/LiCl acted as solvent, base, and catalyst for the ROP reaction. The effects of the parameters, including the reaction temperature, molar ratio of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) to anhydroxylose units (AXU) in xylan, and reaction time, on the degree of substitution (DS) and weight percent of PCL side chain (WPCL) were investigated. The results showed that xylan-g-PCL copolymers with low DS in the range of 0.03-0.39 were obtained under the given conditions. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), (13)C NMR, (1)H-(1)H correlation spectroscopy (COSY), and (1)H-(13)C correlation two-dimensional (2D) NMR [heteronuclear single-quantum coherence (HSQC)] characterization provided more evidence of the attachment of side chains onto xylan. Only one ε-CL was confirmed to be attached onto xylan with each side chain. Integration of resonances assigned to the substituted C2 and C3 in the HSQC spectrum also indicated 69.23 and 30.77% of PCL side chains attached to AXU at C3 and C2 positions, respectively. Although the attachment of PCL onto xylan led to the decreased thermal stability of xylan, the loss of unrecovered xylan fractions with low molecular weight because of the high solubility of xylan in DMSO/LiCl resulted in the increased thermal stability of the samples. This kind of xylan derivative has potential application in environmentally friendly and biodegradable materials considering the good biodegradability of xylan and PCL.