If you perform an acid hydrolysis with sulfuric acid at a concentration of over 64% you will be able to reduce cellulose content of a pulp. However, you have to take into account that cellulose is the primary reinforcement of pulps. If you reduce its content you would obtain a more hydrophobic but less resistant material. Moreover, acid hydrolysis of cellulose starts by the amorphous regions and ends up with the complete hydrolysis of the polymer, reducing the strength consequently

Thank you so much for the reply . Yes, I do understand that .

Dear Trupti Arabatti,

Yes, as you rightly said, the removal of cellulose content can presumably increase the hydrophobicity as cellulose is a hydrophilic content in the wood pulp. But at the same time, the point raised by Cristina Campano is also noteworthy.

There was a paper on the separation of hemicellulose and cellulose from wood pulp by utilizing cosolvent system based on water, ethanol, or acetone and the cellulose dissolving ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate. The paper entitled as follow.

(Separation of Hemicellulose and Cellulose from Wood Pulp by Means of Ionic Liquid/Cosolvent Systems | Biomacromolecules (acs.org))

Hope so this paper would be helpful for your case.

Moreover, you can also find comprehensive literature study about lignin and its structural and chemical properties in the following mentioned article.

• Potential applications of polycarbohydrates, lignin, proteins, polyacids, and other renewable materials for the formulation of green elastomers (DOI:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.03.057)

Best wishes,

Umer Abid

@ Umer Abid, thank you so much for your reply .

Thanks a lot for the papers , I shall definitely take a look at them.

You're most welcome !