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Abstract
Confocal raman microscopy has been used to monitor the structural and chemical changes
upon NaOH treatment of Miscanthus x giganteus, a potential energy crop and a model
lignocellulosic material. Longitudinal and transversal-section images of the parenchyma
cells in raw miscanthus samples reveal that lignin and cellulose are collocated in
the cell wall and that a globular structure, composed predominantly of hemicellulose
and lignin is associated with the interior cell wall. NaOH treatment results in the
complete removal of lignin at long processing time but leaves the cellulose largely
undisturbed as evidenced by the lack of conversion from type I to type II cellulose.
Depth profiling images of partially processed (short exposure time) parenchyma cells
reveal that lignin is removed preferentially from the interior surface of the cell
wall as indicated by the anisotropic distribution of lignin and cellulose across the
cell wall in partially processed samples. These spatially resolved chemical changes
are important, because they illustrate how even simple pre-processing protocols can
develop complex molecular profiles by differential rates of attack on the major components
of the cell wall.
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