Dissolution of microcrystalline cellulose in phosphoric acid-molecular changes and kinetics

In this study, we aimed to dissolve microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) with phosphoric acid to obtain high-quality fermentable saccharides. MCC was directly dissolved in phosphoric acid (the concentration was 83%) for 10 hours at temperatures of 30, 50, and 70 °C. The structural changes of MCC were determined in detail with X-ray powder diffraction, solid-state cross-polarization magic angle spinning ¹³C-NMR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The kinetics of MCC decrystallization during treatment with phosphoric acid was also compared at 30, 50, and 70 °C. With the assumption of first order kinetics, the Arrhenius parameters of K, A ₀ and E_a were calculated. The rate constants of decrystallization reaction (K) were 0.06, 0.17, and 0.12 h^-1 respectively. The pre-exponential factor (A₀) was 1.2 × 10 ⁶ h^-1, and the activation energy (E_a) was 42.4 k J/mol.