An Efficient Method for Determining the α-, β-, and γ-Cellulose Content in Fully Delignified Pulps by Reaction-Based Headspace Gas Chromatography. (1st November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: He, Liang; Chai, Xin-Sheng
• Is Part Of: Journal of wood chemistry and technology. Volume 36:Number 6(2016)
• Page Start: 412
• Page End: 417
• Publication Date: 2016-11-01
• Subjects: α- -- β- -- and γ-cellulose -- delignified pulps -- carbon dioxide -- oxidation reaction -- headspace gas chromatography; Wood -- Chemistry -- Periodicals; Wood; Wood -- Chemistry; Periodicals; 674.13
• DOI: 10.1080/02773813.2016.1203946
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-3813

Abstract

Abstract : This article reports on a headspace gas chromatographic (HS-GC) technique for determining the content of α-, β-, and γ-cellulose in fully delignified pulps. In this method, the pulp sample was extracted by 17.5% and 9.45% NaOH solutions (25°C), respectively, to obtain two soluble fractions; i.e., the sum of β- and γ-cellulose and γ-cellulose. By reacting with potassium dichromate in a strong-acidic medium at 100°C for 60 min in a sealed headspace sample vial, these soluble celluloses in the filtrates were quantitatively converted to carbon dioxide. With the headspace equilibration at 60°C for 7 min, the formed carbon dioxide was measured by HS-GC and thus the content of β- and γ-cellulose in the pulp samples can be determined, from which the content of α-cellulose can also be calculated. The results showed that the present method had a good measurement precision (a relative standard deviation <2.1%) and accuracy (relative differences of <10% compared to the reference); the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 1.71%. In summary, the present method is simple, practical, and is particularly suitable for use in the batch sample analysis for determining α-, β-, and γ-cellulose content in fully delignified pulps.