Cell Wall Pore Structures of Bamboo as Relation to Species and Tissue Types

Abstract

Efficient convention of bamboo biomass into biofuel and biomaterials, as well as chemical treatment are both highly related to the porosity of cell wall. The present work characterizes the micropore and mesopore structure in cell walls of six different bamboo species and tissue types using CO2 and N2 adsorption. Two plantation wood species were also tested for comparison. Bamboo species normally showed lower cell wall porosity (2.64%-3.75%) than wood species (3.98%-5.06%), indicating a more compact structure for bamboo than wood. A distinct species dependence of cell wall pore structures and porosity was also observed. Furthermore, the cell wall pore structure and porosity are shown to be tissue-specific, as the parenchyma cells exhibit higher pore volume and porosity compared to bamboo fibers. The obtained results give new explanations on the known facts that both bamboo and bamboo fibers exhibit higher biomass recalcitrance as compared to wood and bamboo parenchyma cells, constructing the base of pretreatment optimization and subsequent processing for bamboo-derived biofuels and biomaterials.