Lignocellulose widely available and renewable resource to replace fossil raw materials in chemicals and material production, consisting mainly of carbohydrates, that is cellulose and hemicellulose, and lignin. The complicated structure of lignocellulose creates significant barrier for its application potential, as the isolation of individual lignocellulose components has so far hardly achieved in mild condition. Here, we demonstrate that the use of strong hydrogen bond donor (thymol) to create supramolecular interaction between delignification medium and lignin is key to remove almost all of lignin from softwood within minutes at temperature close to room temperature. Almost completely white cellulose fraction was isolated along with two low-molecular weight lignin fractions. Lignin fractions showed high UV absorption properties with low absorption at visible light region. It is postulate that due to the presence of large number of ether and aliphatic hydroxy groups along with few numbers of carbonyl groups, lignin has distinct hydrogen bond accepting properties. Supramolecular interaction is therefore formed via hydrogen bonding and π stacking, enabling the rapid delignification. The supramolecular interaction was demonstrated via formation of room temperature liquid/gel between two solids (technical lignin and thymol).

Supramolecular interaction-driven delignification of lignocellulose

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