Asalreadymentionedabove,softwoodxylanisrelativelystable under alkaline pulping conditions; however, its structure undergoesasubstantialalteration,suchasthroughtheextensivecleavage of 4-O-MeGlcA and the arabinose side groups, thus, yielding a linear xylan polysaccharide that is essentially free from side groups (Alekhina et al., 2014). Even though all of the lignin samples were washed extensively, the polymeric form of xylan and its linear structureprobablycauseditsinsolubilityinwater.Itispossiblethat the relatively high molecular weight fraction of xylan re-absorbed onto the fiber surface in the final cooking stage, while the fraction of low molecular weight xylan remained dissolved in the liquors. Therefore, lignin samples precipitated at a higher pH were nearly freeofxylancontaminants,whileligninprecipitatedatpH2.5contained up to 32% of xylan.
4.3. Molecular weight distribution (MWD)
GPC was carried out to obtain the MWD of the lignin fractions. Theresultsclearlyindicatedthatefficientfractionationofthelignin can be achieved by sequential acidification. There was a clear correlationbetweenthemolecularweightandthepHofprecipitation; the weight-average molecular weight (Mw) decreased proportionallytothedecreasingpHlevelsthatwereadjustedforprecipitation (Fig. 2). Similarly, the increase in the Mw of lignin with increasing precipitationpHwasreportedbySantosetal.(2014)andWangand Chen (2013) for hardwood kraft lignin. The dissimilarity between thesamplesthatoriginatedfromthedifferentdelignificationstages was only marginal. In order to obtain a quantitative comparison