Abstract
Raman spectroscopy with its various special techniques and methods has been applied to study plant biomass for about 30 years. Such investigations have been performed at both macro- and micro-levels. However, with the availability of the Near Infrared (NIR) (1064 nm) Fourier Transform (FT)-Raman instruments where, in most materials, successful fluorescence suppression can be achieved, the utility of the Raman investigations has increased significantly. Moreover, the development of several new capabilities such as estimation of cellulose-crystallinity, ability to analyze changes in cellulose conformation at the local and molecular level, and examination of water-cellulose interactions have made this technique essential for research in the field of plant science. The FT-Raman method has also been applied to research studies in the arenas of biofuels and nanocelluloses. Moreover, the ability to investigate plant lignins has been further refined with the availability of near-IR Raman. In this paper, we present 1064-nm FT-Raman spectroscopy methodology to investigate various compositional and structural properties of plant material. It is hoped that the described studies will motivate the research community in the plant biomass field to adapt this technique to investigate their specific research needs.
Highlights
This is in contrast to techniques like light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) which provide only morphological information of a material
We present previous applications of 1064-nm Fourier Transform (FT) Raman spectroscopy to the field of plant science as well as recent studies conducted in our laboratory
Plant materials are composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignins, extractives, pectins, water, and residual ash
Summary
Raman spectroscopy is an important method for investigating various plant tissues because it provides molecular level information on composition and structure of cellular components (Atalla and Agarwal, 1985; Agarwal and Ralph, 1997, 2007; Agarwal, 2006; Gierlinger and Schwanninger, 2006; Agarwal et al, 2010, 2013a; Gierlinger et al, 2010; Schmidt et al, 2010; Hänninen et al, 2011; Sun et al, 2011; Zhanga et al, 2012). Technological developments (Adar et al, 2007) in the fields of filters, detectors, and lasers have made
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