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Two molecules, 7-(diethylamino)coumarin-3-carbohydrazide (DCCH) and fluorescein-5-thiosemicarbazide (FTSC) were investigated in different solvents, under varying pH conditions regarding their spectroscopic properties for the usage as a Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) pair to study the molecular interaction between cellulosic surfaces. All the relevant spectroscopic properties to determine the Förster distance were measured and the performance as a FRET system was checked. From the results, it is clear that the environmental conditions need to be accurately controlled as both, but especially the FTSC dyes are sensitive to changes. For high enough concentrations positive FRET systems were observed in DMF, DMSO, H2O, THF and alkaline DMF. However due to the low quantum yield of the unmodified DCCH throughout the investigated parameter range and the strong environmental dependency of FTSC, both dyes are not preferable for being used in a FRET system for studying interaction between cellulosic surfaces., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

The present paper described a triple-wavelength visible spectroscopic method for the determination of iron content in lignocellulosic materials. After the sample was pretreated with acidic hydrolysis method under selected conditions, the color agent, 1, 10-phenanthroline monohydrate, was added in the filtrate and then measured by a triple-wavelength spectroscopic method at wavelengths of 416, 510 and 700 nm, from which the iron contents of the sample can be calculated. The results showed that this method can efficiently deduct the influences of acidic soluble lignin and furfural compounds generated during the sample pretreatment and baseline drift caused by the tiny particles in the filtrates. It not only has a good measurement precision but also is accurate, in which the relative differences of the results obtained by the present method and ICP-OES method is less than 5%. The method is simple and practical, and suitable for industrial applications.

We explore the application of terahertz spectroscopic techniques for the remote determination of the water content of paper. The aim is the development of a rapid diagnostic imaging tool applicable in paper fabrication processes. THz radiation offers a high sensitivity for water, a good spatial resolution, and insensitivity to scattering at the paper surface. The advent of THz cameras makes fast large-area image detectors feasible. In this paper, we show for the case of a 0.6-THz fixed-frequency system, that the water content of paper can be determined with high accuracy. We demonstrate a quantitative (calibrated) method for determining the moisture content in paper based on extinction and phase measurements in the lower THz range with a spatial resolution in the mm-range and scanning times below two minutes.