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• Electroactive carboxyl terminated aniline pentamer was synthesized. • Conductive hemicellulose hydrogels (CHHs) were manufactured by one-pot reaction. • CHHs possessed a stable macro-porous structure and tunable swelling behavior. • Conductivity of CHHs tuned by carboxyl terminated aniline pentamer contents. The conductive hemicellulose hydrogels (CHHs) were achieved by incorporating carboxyl terminated aniline pentamer (CTAP) into the hydrophilic xylan-rich hemicellulose networks with epichlorohydrin. CHHs were obtained by facile one-pot reaction in water at ambient temperature. The successful synthesis of CTAP was confirmed by FT-IR, 1H NMR, and UV–vis spectra. All the hydrogels reached their equilibrium-swollen state within 12 h. The morphology and the thermal stability of CHHs were adjusted by the addition of CTAP. The conductivities of CHHs could also be tuned from 8.92 × 10−5 to 2.11 × 10−3 S/m by adding the blending amounts of the CTAP from 0 to 50% mass ratio while simultaneously altering the equilibrium swelling ratio from 28.1 to 15.8. CHHs showed homogeneous porous structure, tunable swelling behavior, controllable conductivity, and good thermal stability. These results highlight that CHHs are attractive candidates to be used in biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eucalyptus wood was pretreated with an integrated process based on hydrothermal and alkaline pretreatments. The structural changes of hemicelluloses during the pretreatments and the components of the hydrolysates were comprehensively characterized. Sugar and spectral analyses indicated that the hemicelluloses remained in the residues obtained at hydrothermal pretreatment under low temperatures were mainly composed of a (1 → 4)- β -D-Xyl p backbone with 4- O -methyl- α -D-glucuronic acids attached at O -2 of the xylose together with various monosaccharides of rhamnose, arabinose, galactose, glucose, and mannose. The pretreatments resulted in serious degradation of hemicelluloses at high pretreatment temperatures. The distribution changes of the hemicelluloses in the cell walls during the integrated pretreatments were detected by Confocal Raman Microscopy, which revealed that the dissolution of hemicelluloses in different morphological regions was inhomogeneous, and the a large portion of hemicelluloses were removed from the secondary cell wall regions during the pretreatments. Unlabelled Image • Hydrothermal and alkaline pretreatments were proposed to treat Eucalyptus wood. • The H 0 and H 170 have a linear backbone of (1 → 4)- β -D-Xyl p residues. • The dissolution of hemicelluloses in different morphological regions was uneven. • The hemicelluloses were dissolved mostly from the secondary cell wall regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]