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A mild oxidation strategy for oxidation-hydrolysis of cellulose without additional catalyst

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Abstract

O3 was applied as an efficient oxidant in the pre-oxidation of cellulose under the mild conditions for oxidation-hydrolysis of cellulose without additional catalyst. After treated by O3 at 120 °C for 4 h, some hydroxymethyl groups on cellulose structure were oxidized to carboxyl groups which act as the active sites for the hydrolysis under the hydrothermal conditions to break the glycoside bonds of cellulose. Much lower oxidation temperature and short treatment time make this method more competitive than the conventional oxidation-hydrolysis strategy (210 °C, 48 h) where O2 was used as the oxidant. Furthermore, in this oxidation-hydrolysis strategy, efficient hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose can be realized with a high cellulose/water mass ratio (40 wt%). Correspondingly, a glucose aqueous solution with high concentration (50.9 g L−1) can be obtained. High concentration of glucose is favorable for the further application in fermentation or chemical conversion. This work provides a new, mild, and green oxidation strategy for oxidation-hydrolysis of cellulose without additional catalyst.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21875222, 31801671).

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21875222, 31801671).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Green Catalysis Center and College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, 100 Kexue Road, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Lipeng Zhou, Xiaolin Han & Xiaomei Yang

  2. College of Food Science & Technology, Henan Agricultural University, 95 Wenhua Road, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Yangyang Ma

  3. School of Chemical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, 100 Kexue Road, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Tianliang Lu

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  1. Lipeng Zhou
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  2. Xiaolin Han
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  3. Yangyang Ma
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  4. Xiaomei Yang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Lipeng Zhou, Xiaolin Han, Yangyang Ma, and Tianliang Lu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Lipeng Zhou, Xiaomei Yang, and Tianliang Lu, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tianliang Lu.

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Zhou, L., Han, X., Ma, Y. et al. A mild oxidation strategy for oxidation-hydrolysis of cellulose without additional catalyst. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 14, 7725–7733 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-022-02866-7

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