Extraction cellulose from corn-stalk taking advantage of pretreatment technology with immobilized enzyme

Abstract

In this paper, the corn-stalk cellulose (CSC) was extracted from the corn-stalk pretreated by the immobilized enzyme which was prepared using xylanase and laccase. The immobilization rate was strongly affected by such conditions as the carrier concentration and the carbodiimide (EDC) concentration. The structure of CSC was characterized by Fourier infrared (FTIR). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to verify the crystallinity of CSC. The crystallinity of CSC was 74.13%, which was increased by 25.95% than that of the corn-stalk. The morphologies of the corn-stalk pretreated by the immobilized enzyme and the CSC extracted were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results showed that the cellulose content of the cellulose obtained only by acid–base method was 85.46%, and that of the cellulose obtained by immobilized enzyme was 96.72%. What indicated that the immobilized enzyme pretreatment could loosen the cell well of corn-stalk and partly remove lignin and hemicelluloses from corn-stalk, which was beneficial for the further extraction of cellulose by other treatment methods.