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Preparation and characterization of dissolving pulp and lyocell fibers from corncob

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Abstract

In this study, dissolving pulp was prepared from corncob via alkali extraction, kraft cooking, metal ion removal, and H2O2 bleaching. Two cooking schemes were used to prepare unbleached corncob pulp samples with degrees of polymerization of 735 and 565. Employing an acid treatment with sodium ethylenediamine tetraacetate (EDTA) and sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) effectively reduced the ash and iron contents of the pulp; the optimal treatment conditions were pH 1.5, 0.4 wt% EDTA, and 0.4 wt% SHMP, which afforded pulp with iron and ash contents of 8.5 ppm and 0.02 wt%, respectively. A single-factor experiment was used to study the effects of H2O2 dosage and bleaching time on the brightness of the obtained pulp. The optimal bleaching parameters were determined as an H2O2 dosage of 3 wt% and a bleaching time of 70 min, which led to a brightness value greater than 82%. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy results confirmed that the main component of corncob pulp was cellulose, and the fiber adopted twine-like morphologies with numerous spiral folds on the surface. The wet corncob pulp was used directly as the raw material for spinning lyocell fibers, and the results indicated that the corncob pulp had good spinnability.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFC1910303). We also thank Suzanne Adam, PhD, from Liwen Bianji (Edanz) (http://www.liwenbianji.cn/) for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.

Funding

National Key Research and Development Program of China, 2020YFC1910303

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Material Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, People’s Republic of China

    Gesheng Yang, Yi Zhou, Huihui Zhang, Su Wang, Xiang Yao & Huili Shao

  2. Shanghai Huali Intergrated Circuit Corporation, Shanghai, 201203, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Zhou

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  1. Gesheng Yang
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  2. Yi Zhou
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  3. Huihui Zhang
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  4. Su Wang
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Contributions

GY: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing—original draft, review & editing, Funding acquisition, Project administration. YZ: Resources, Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis. HZ: Conceptualization, Methodology. SW: Investigation, Visualization. XY: Formal analysis, Validation. HS: Writing—review & editing.

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Correspondence to Gesheng Yang.

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Yang, G., Zhou, Y., Zhang, H. et al. Preparation and characterization of dissolving pulp and lyocell fibers from corncob. Cellulose 30, 4841–4853 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-023-05179-8

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