Abstract
The tight organization of major wood cell wall polymers limits the swellability, solubility and reactivity of cellulose fibers during the production of regenerated textile fibers, nanocellulose, bioethanol, and many other value-added products. However, the ultrastructural assembly of cellulose elementary fibrils (EF) and matrix materials in one of the outer layers, i.e. S1-2 transition layer of wood cell wall, is far from being understood. Here, single-axis electron tomography on ultrathin spruce sections was applied to observe the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the S1-2 layer. The nanoscale geometries of the EFs were further quantitatively modeled through mathematical fitting of the tomographic subvolumes by suitable parametric space curves. The results showed that crisscross, bundled and parallel EF organizations are all present in this layer; the former two exhibit a denser structure. Several quantitative measures such as distances and angles were obtained for the analyzed structures. The result obtained in this study suggests that the S1-2 transition layer differs in structure than the principal cell wall layers. The structural differences and its possible role in wood cell wall have been discussed. These results will enhance our understanding of the swellability, accessibility and solubility of woody biomass for its conversion into the aforementioned value-added products.
Highlights
Cellulose elementary fibrils (EFs)[1], known as microfibrils[2], are embedded in a matrix of hemicelluloses and lignin may form the skeleton of wood cell walls[3,4,5]
The crossed-fibrillar structure, which can be viewed more clearly by the fitted space curves (Fig. 2d), might originate from opposite helical orientations of EFs in the S1 and S2 layers, which cross in the transition layer forming a denser structure (Fig. 2b,c)
Our findings suggest that an abrupt change of helices takes place in the transition layer with a crossed-fibrillar structure followed by a gradual change of EF angle in the succeeding layer
Summary
Cellulose elementary fibrils (EFs)[1], known as microfibrils[2], are embedded in a matrix of hemicelluloses and lignin may form the skeleton of wood cell walls[3,4,5]. The structural organization of EFs is considered to be the prime factor that regulates the mechanical performance of solid wood on micro to macro levels and the conversion of lignocellulose fibers into various products. These value-added products could be bio-fuels, fine chemicals, and rich energy sources for microbial fermentation and enzyme production[12,13,14,15]. The lack of knowledge in the transition layer ultrastructure limits the understanding of its role in various applications of the cellulose fibers.
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