Degradation of soybean stalk lignin with white-rot fungus and SEM characterization of surface structure

Abstract

Conditions for degradation of soybean stalk lignin with Phanerochaete Chrysosporium Burdsall are studied in this paper. The measured degradation rates for lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose are 49.91%, 32.04% and 49.06% respectively when 12 mL of synthetic culture solution and 0.8 mL of seed liquid (concentration at 8.6×10 6 counts/mL) are added to 5.0 g of stalk when its initial pH value of culture medium is 4.5. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to observe the apparent structure of soybean stalks before and after degradation and it is found that the number of holes on surface of stalk and on the inside walls of vascular bundles is increased and the surface roughness and degree of fragmentation is strengthened. © 2012 Springer-Verlag GmbH.