Toward enhanced cellulose biodegradation: Investigating the relationship between cellulose accessibility and crystallinity with a modified Simons’ staining assay

Cellulose accessibility is one of the key factors impacting the hydrolysibility of cellulose and biomass.  Simons’ staining, a two color differential stain assay, is the traditional assay to measure accessibility.  In this work, we combine the traditional Simons’ staining with a cellulase affinity assay to yield a new assessment of cellulose accessibility and pore size distribution.  The outcome of a novel chemical pretreatment method with substituted imidazole will be investigated by this new assay for both model cellulose substrates and biomass.  Model cellulose substrates with intermediate crystallinity and different origins were prepared to examine the relationship between cellulose accessibility, crystallinity, and hydrolysibility.