Cellulose, as an environmentally friendly and renewable biomaterial, could be converted into a variety of products. However, the application of cellulosic materials is hampered due to its insolubility. In this study, enzymatic pretreatment was reported to promote the dissolution of polar cellulose in NaOH/urea solution. The solubility of cellulose was strongly depended on the pretreatment time and degree of polymerization (DP). The untreated cellulose with a DP of 590 was hardly (less than 0.5%) dissolved in NaOH/urea. After pretreated by cellulase (2 FPU/g of untreated cellulose) for 6 h, cellulose DP decreased to 392 and its solubility increased to 6%. With the reduction of amorphous cellulose, the crystallinity of poplar cellulose increased from 44.6% to 52.4%. Though the crystallinity increased, the solubility of cellulose in cold NaOH/urea solution was improved due to decrease of DP. The results suggested that the effect of DP on the cellulose dissolution in NaOH/urea solution is much more important than that of crystallinity. The enzymatic pretreatment was proved to be an effective and green method to promote dissolution of cellulose.

Enzymatic pretreatment to improve cellulose solubility in a green solvent of NaOH/urea

249th National Meeting (2015)

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