Agarwal, U.P.; Ralph, S.A. Raman Spectra of Delignified Plant Fibers: Exploring the Impact of Xylan’s Presence on the Spectral Features of Cellulose. Fibers2024, 12, 5.
Agarwal, U.P.; Ralph, S.A. Raman Spectra of Delignified Plant Fibers: Exploring the Impact of Xylan’s Presence on the Spectral Features of Cellulose. Fibers 2024, 12, 5.
Agarwal, U.P.; Ralph, S.A. Raman Spectra of Delignified Plant Fibers: Exploring the Impact of Xylan’s Presence on the Spectral Features of Cellulose. Fibers2024, 12, 5.
Agarwal, U.P.; Ralph, S.A. Raman Spectra of Delignified Plant Fibers: Exploring the Impact of Xylan’s Presence on the Spectral Features of Cellulose. Fibers 2024, 12, 5.
Abstract
Wood and plants are made of fibers which contain, in addition to cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses. Xylan and galactoglucomannan are the dominant secondary cell wall hemicelluloses. Besides fibers’ traditional use in textile and paper industries, the fibers are important materials for the biorefinery industry and for developing biocomposites. In the former context, renewable lignocellulosic biomass is used as feedstock to sustainably produce fuels, chemicals, and polymers. On the other hand, in relation to composites, cellulose fibers which are anisotropic play an important reinforcing role in fiber-matrix interactions. However, for these and other applications, structural analysis of the fibers is important and among many analytical techniques used, Raman spectroscopy is one of the methods. However, given the structural similarity between hemicelluloses and cellulose, many of their Raman contributions overlap. While the wavenumber positions corresponding to the Raman contributions of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin are known, extent to which overlapping features of hemicellulose modify the spectrum of cellulose is not yet fully understood. The present investigation focuses on this aspect by using xylan as one of the hemicelluloses. As a model system, samples with various mass ratios of microcrystalline cellulose (cotton) and xylan (birch wood) were prepared and analyzed by FT-Raman spectroscopy. The findings were then applied to interpret Raman spectra of selected xylan containing delignified plant fibers. It is hoped that insights gained would lead to better interpretation of the spectra of natural and treated plant materials.
Chemistry and Materials Science, Paper, Wood and Textiles
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