Abstract
Curaua nanofibers extracted under different conditions were investigated. The raw fibers were mercerized with NaOH solutions; they were then submitted to acid hydrolysis using three different types of acids (H2SO4, a mixture of H2SO4/HCl and HCl). The fibers were analyzed by cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose contents; viscometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal stability by thermogravimetric analysis (TG). The nanofibers were morphologically characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and their surface charges in suspensions were estimated by Zeta-potential. Their degree of polymerization (DP) was characterized by viscometry, crystallinity by XRD and thermal stability by TG. Increasing the NaOH solution concentration in the mercerization, there was a decrease of hemicellulose and lignin contents and consequently an increase of cellulose content. XRD patterns presented changes in the crystal structure from cellulose I to cellulose II when the fibers were mercerized with 17.5% NaOH solution. All curaua nanofibers presented a rod-like shape, an average diameter (D) of 6–10 nm and length (L) of 80–170 nm, with an aspect ratio (L/D) of around 13–17. The mercerization of fibers with NaOH solutions influenced the crystallinity index and thermal stability of the resulting nanofibers. The fibers mercerized with NaOH solution 17.5% resulted in more crystalline nanofibers, but thermally less stable and inferior DP. The aggregation state increases with the amount of HCl introduced into the extraction, due to the decrease of surface charges (as verified by Zeta Potential analysis). However, this release presented nanofibers with better thermal stability than those whose acid hydrolysis was carried out using only H2SO4.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
(101)−2θ = 14.7° for cellulose type I (Na5 fibers) and 2θ = 12.1° for cellulose type II (Na17.5 fibers);
\( \left( {10\bar{1}} \right) \)−2θ = 16.8° for cellulose type I (Na5 fibers) and 2θ = 20.0° for cellulose type II (Na17.5 fibers);
(002)−2θ = 21.9° for cellulose type I (Na5 fibers) and 2θ = 22.7° for cellulose type II (Na17.5 fibers).
References
Alemdar A, Sain M (2008) Isolation and characterization of nanofibers from agricultural residues–Wheat straw and soy hulls. Bioresource Technol 99:1664–1671
Araki J, Wada M, Kuga S, Okano T (1998) Flow properties of microcrystalline cellulose suspension prepared by acid treatment of native cellulose. Colloid Surface A 142:75–82
Borysiak S, Doczekalska B (2005) X-ray diffraction study of pine Wood treated with NaOH. Fibres Text East Eur 13(5):87–89
Borysiak S, Garbarczyk J (2003) Applying the WAXS method to estimate the supermolecular structure of cellulose fibres after mercerization. Fibres Text East Eur 11(5):104–106
Chen HZ, Chen JZ, Liu J, Li ZH (1999) Studies on the steam explosion of wheat straw. I-Effects of the processing conditions for steam explosion of wheat straw and analysis of the process. J Cellulose Sci Technol 7(2):60–67
D’Almeida ALFS, Barreto DW, Calado V, D’Almeida JRM (2008) Thermal analysis of less common lignocellulose fibers. J Therm Anal Calorim 91(2):405–408
Dufresne A (2006) Comparing the mechanical properties of high performances polymer nanocomposites from biological sources. J Nanosci Nanotechnol 6:322–330
Gardner DJ, Oporto GS, Mills R, Samir MASA (2008) Adhesion and Surface Issues in Cellulose and Nanocellulose. J Adhes Sci Technol 22:545–567
Gomes A, Matsuo T, Goda K, Ohgi J (2007) Development and effect of alkali treatment on tensile properties of curaua fiber green composites. Compos Part A-Appl S 38:1811–1820
Hubbe MA, Rojas OJ, Lucia LA, Sain M (2008) Cellulosic nanocomposites, review. BioResources 3(3):929–980
Ishikawa A, Okano T, Sugiyama J (1997) Fine structure and tensile properties of ramie fibres in the crystalline form of cellulose I, II, IIII and IVI. Polymer 38:463–468
Leão AL, Caraschi JC, Tan IH (2000) Curaua fiber—A tropical natural fibers from amazon potencial and applications in composites. In: Frollini E, Leão AL, Mattoso LHC (eds) Natural Polymers and Agrofibers Composites. São Carlos, Brazil, pp 257–272
Lima MMS, Borsali R (2004) Rodlike cellulose microcrystals: structure, properties and applications. Macromol Rapid Comm 25:771–787
Lindgren T, Edlund U, Iversen T (1995) A multivariate characterization of crystal transformations of cellulose. Cellulose 2:273–288
Monteiro SN, Aquino RCMP, Lopes FPD, Carvalho EA, D’Almeida JRM (2006) Comportamento Mecânico e Características estruturais de compósitos poliméricos reforçados com fibras contínuas e alinhadas de Curauá. Revista Matéria 11(3):197–203
Morán JI, Alvarez VA, Cyras VP, Vázquez A (2008) Extraction of cellulose and preparation of nanocellulose from sisal fibers. Cellulose 15:149–159
O’Sullivan AC (1997) Cellulose: the structure slowly unravels. Cellulose 4:173–207
Oh SY, Yoo DI, Shin Y, Kim HC, Kim HY, Chung YS, Park WH, Youk JH (2005) Crystalline structure analysis of cellulose treated with sodium hydroxide and carbon dioxide by means of X-ray diffraction and FTIR spectroscopy. Carbohyd Res 340:2376–2391
Pääkko M, Vapaavuori J, Silvennoinen R, Kosonen H, Ankerfors M, Lindström T, Berglund LA, Ikkala O (2008) Long and entangled native cellulose I nanofibers allow flexible aerogels and hierarchically porous templates for functionalities. Soft Matter 4:2492–2499
Paula MP, Lacerda TM, Frollini E (2008) Sisal cellulose acetates obtained from heterogeneous reactions. Express Polymer Letters 2(6):423–428
Roman M, Winter WT (2004) Effect of sulfate groups from sulfuric acid hydrolysis on the thermal degradation behavior of bacterial cellulose. Biomacromolecules 5:1671–1677
Samir MASA, Alloin F, Dufresne A (2005) Review of recent research into cellulosic whiskers, their properties and their application in nanocomposite field. Biomacromolecules 6(2):612–626
Silva RV, Aquino EMF (2008) Curaua fiber: a new alternative to polymeric composites. J Reinf Plast Comp 27(1):103–112
Silva R, Haraguchi SK, Muniz EC, Rubira AF (2009) Aplicações de fibras lignocelulósicas na química de polímeros e em compósitos. Quim Nova 32(3):661–671
Siró I, Plackett D (2010) Microfibrillated cellulose and new nanocomposite materias: a review. Cellulose 17:459–494
Souza SF, Leão AL, Cai JH, Wu C, Sain M, Cherian BM (2010) Nanocellulose from curava fibers and their Nanocomposites. Mol Cryst Liq Cryst 522:42[342]–52[352]
Tomczak F, Satyanarayana KG, Sydenstricker THD (2007) Studies on lignocellulosic fibers of Brazil: Part III–Morphology and properties of Brazilian Curauá fibers. Compos Part A-Appl S 38:2227–2236
Trindade WG, Hoareau W, Megiatto JD, Razera IAT, Castellan A, Frollini E (2005) Thermoset phenolic matrices reinforced with unmodified and surface-grafted furfuryl alcohol sugar cane bagasse and curaua fibers: properties of fibers and composites. Biomacromolecules 6:2485–2496
Wang Y, Cao X, Zhang L (2006) Effects of cellulose whiskers on properties of soy protein thermoplastics. Macromol Biosci 6:524–531
Wang N, Ding E, Cheng R (2007) Thermal degradation behaviors of spherical cellulose nanocrystals with sulfate groups. Polymer 48:3486–3493
Yang H, Yan R, Chen H, Lee DH, Zheng C (2007) Characteristics of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin pyrolysis. Fuel 86:1781–1788
Zhang J, Elder TJ, Pu Y, Ragauskas AJ (2007) Facile synthesis of spherical cellulose nanoparticles. Carbohyd Polym 69:607–611
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by CNPq, FAPESP (Process No. 07/50863-4), FINEP and EMBRAPA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Corrêa, A.C., de Morais Teixeira, E., Pessan, L.A. et al. Cellulose nanofibers from curaua fibers. Cellulose 17, 1183–1192 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-010-9453-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-010-9453-3