Interaction of lignin and xylan in the hydrothermal synthesis of lignocellulose-based carbon quantum dots and their application in in-vivo bioimaging

摘要: The complex interaction of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose in the hydrothermal degradation progress of lignocellulose, has led to uncertainty in the hydrothermal synthesis of lignocellulose-based CQDs (LC-CQDs). This makes it difficult to identify the specific formation mechanism of LC-CQDs. To simplify the reaction system and comprehensively describe the formation of LC-CQDs, both lignin and hemicellulose, the main hydrothermal degradation products of lignocellulose, were used as precursor to simulate and explore the synthesis of LC-CQDs at different time intervals (2–12 h). First, different lignin models were employed for preparing CQDs to determine the key lignin structure that govern CQDs formation. G-type lignin-model based CQDs were shown to have higher fluorescence intensity than H- and S-type. Then, G-type lignin model and hemicellulose model (xylan) were used simultaneously …