Effects of Alkaline Hydrogen Peroxide Pre-Extraction on Bamboo Lignin Chemistry and Other Bamboo Chemical Components

This paper aimed to investigate the reasons for improved properties of bamboo alkaline peroxide mechanical pulp (APMP), such as relatively high brightness and low post-colour number, by alkali hydrogen peroxide pre-extraction (AHPP) treatment. It was found that AHPP could affect the dissolution of 1% sodium hydroxide extractives, benzene-ethanol extractives, and acid-soluble lignin. The results of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (13C-NMR) illustrated that carboxyl, syringyl, guaiacyl, acetyl, and methoxyl groups of the milled wood lignin (MWL) in bamboo were degraded slightly after AHPP treatment. However, some lignin-like structures, the links of α-O-4, β-O-4, and some carbohydrates such as xylan, α-glucose, β-glucose, α-mannose, and β-mannose in lignin-carbohydrate complexes (LCCs) were degraded noticeably. The analysis of UV spectrophotometry indicated that AHPP treatment was conductive to the degradation of some chromophores in MWL. The degradation of MWL and LCC under simulated AHPP conditions showed consistency with the above results.