Cellulose extraction from Zoysia japonica pretreated by alumina-doped MgO in AMIMCl.

In this study, alumina-doped MgO was produced as a solid alkali for lignocellulose pretreatment. Pretreatment with alumina-doped MgO disrupted the lignocellulose structure and significantly reduced the lignin content of the Z. japonica. After pretreatment, Z. japonica showed significant solubility in 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (AMIMCl). The similar high solubility of pretreated Z. japonica samples by original alumina-doped MgO and used alumina-doped MgO also proved that alumina-doped MgO had strong stability, which can be recycled and used repeatedly. The regenerated cellulose was similar to microcrystalline cellulose according to FTIR and NMR analyses. Compared to microcrystalline cellulose, only the crystallinity of the regenerated cellulose decreased.