Insights of Ethanol Organosolv Pretreatment on Lignin Properties of Broussonetia papyrifera

Delignification of Broussonetia papyrifera during ethanol organosolv pretreatment was studied. Milled wood lignin (MWL), the ethanol organosolv lignin recovered at 5 min (PL5), 10 min (PL10), and 60 min (PL60) during the pretreatment, and the residual lignin (RL60) after the pretreatment were characterized and compared. GPC results demonstrated that the weight-average molecular weights (M w) of the ethanol organosolv lignin fractions increased as the pretreatment time extended from 5 to 60 min. 31P NMR analysis revealed that the content of aliphatic OH decreased in the following order: RL60 < PL60 < PL5 < PL10 < MWL. HSQC NMR results suggested that the contents of syringyl, guaiacyl, p-hydroxybenzoate unit, phenylcoumaran, and resinol in the solubilized lignin fractions were significantly changed during the pretreatment. In addition, a significant portion of β-O-4 interunit linkages of lignin was cleaved during the pretreatment, leading to the formation of stilbene structures in lignin samples such as PL60.