Combination of ball-milling and non-thermal atmospheric plasma as physical treatments for the saccharification of microcrystalline cellulose

Here we report that non-thermal atmospheric plasma (NTAP) can be used as a physical treatment for the extensive depolymerization of amorphous cellulose to low molecular weight cello-oligomers (DP = 36). Such NTAP treatment does not require addition of any solvent and catalyst, thus facilitating the recovery of cello-oligomers. Additionally, the NTAP treatment was found to be highly selective since degradation/oxidation of glucose units occurs to a rather small extent (purity of cello-oligomers >90%). These low molecular weight cello-oligomers recovered after NTAP treatment were then more prone to hydrolysis than native cellulose and were easily hydrolyzed to glucose over a cation exchange resin with an unprecedented yield of 58%.