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Pulsed Discharge Plasma over the Surface of an Aqueous Solution to Induce Lignin Decomposition

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Abstract

In this work, non-equilibrium atmospheric-pressure plasma was introduced over an aqueous solution as a medium to depolymerise lignin employing an applied voltage of 10 kV and a frequency of 10 kHz. As a starting material, lignin was extracted from Japanese cedar wood flour utilising a deep eutectic solvent (DES) at 50–120 °C. The Fourier-transform infrared (FT–IR) spectra indicated that lignin was extracted from the Japanese cedar wood flour in this temperature range. Additionally, the ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectra of the liquid fraction of the products at 280 nm revealed the high lignin content of the extracts. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) revealed that the average molecular weight of the lignin was 400–700 Da. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) illustrated that the prolonged discharge plasma treatment concurrently promoted the further depolymerisation reaction and repolymerisation of the lignin-derived compounds.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number JP20H02515) and JST SICORP (Grant Number JPMJSC18H1), Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Process Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan

    Wahyu diono, Takumi Ibuki, Hideki Kanda & Motonobu Goto

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Kampus ITS Sukolilo, Surabaya, 60111, Indonesia

    Siti Machmudah

  3. J-Oil Mills, Inc, Kanagawa, 254-0016, Japan

    Masami Bito

  4. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Yaping Zhao

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  1. Wahyu diono
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  2. Takumi Ibuki
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Correspondence to Motonobu Goto.

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diono, W., Ibuki, T., Machmudah, S. et al. Pulsed Discharge Plasma over the Surface of an Aqueous Solution to Induce Lignin Decomposition. Arab J Sci Eng 47, 5923–5934 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-021-05806-1

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