The Method of αCellulose Extraction from Lake Sediments

Key words: 
• lake sediments /
• αcellulose /
• extraction /
• infrared spectrum

Abstract: αcellulose, as an important component of organic matter from lake sediments, has been paid much attention by paleoclimate researchers, and especially its isotopes have been extensively utilized to reconstruct paleoclimate and paleoenvironment. Recently, the limited application of stable isotope of cellulose is attributed to difficulty to extract pure cellulose from lake sediments, and the established experimental procedure of cellulose extraction is very complicated. Based on repeated experiments, an effective four processes to extract cellulose is established, including alkalinewashing by 5% NaOH, acidwashing by 5%HCl, bleaching by glacial acetic acid and sodium chlorite and alkalinewashing by 17.5% NaOH. The result of infrared spectrum shows that spectrogram is consistent with standard αcellulose. Furthermore, in order to testify the result, compare with the preestablished method about stable carbon and oxygen isotope, which indicates this procedure is proved to be simple and feasible.