| Abstract:Balsa wood was subjected to acidic/alkaline deep eutectic solvent (DES) pretreatment at 110°C for 5 h, and the chemical composition, surface morphology, structural variation, and enzymatic hydrolysis performance of the balsa wood before and after pretreatment were analyzed. The results indicated that all three types of acidic/alkaline DES pretreatments effectively deconstructed the balsa wood raw material. The acidic DES removed nearly all hemicelluloses and a portion of lignin, with the stronger acidic treatment using acidic aluminum chloride hexahydrate/propanetriol system resulting in partial cellulose degradation. The alkaline choline chloride/ethanolamine DES pretreatment led to substantial removal of lignin while preserving a significant amount of carbohydrates in the residue. The pretreatment significantly enhanced cellulase hydrolysis, increasing the glucose yield from 16.45% in the raw material to 52.62%-60.71%. Even after being recycled three times, the cellulose hydrolysis rate of DES remained more than 2.5 times higher than that of the raw material. This study revealed that acidic/alkaline DES pretreatment enhanced cellulose hydrolysis rates, providing insights for the design of DES systems. |