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Structural characterization of carboxyl cellulose nanofibers extracted from underutilized sources

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  • Special Topic: Smart and Functional Fiber Materials
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Abstract

Two different chemical methods, TEMPO-oxidation and nitro-oxidation, were used to extract carboxylcellulose nanofibers (CNFs) from non-wood biomass sources (i.e., jute, soft and hard spinifex grasses). The combined TEMPO-oxidation and homogenization approach was very efficient to produce CNFs from the cellulose component of biomass; however, the nitro-oxidation method was also found to be effective to extract CNFs directly from raw biomass even without mechanical treatment. The effect of these two methods on the resulting cross-section dimensions of CNFs was investigated by solution small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The UV-Vis spectroscopic data from 0.1 wt% TEMPO-oxidized nanofiber (TOCNF) and nitro-oxidized nanofiber (NOCNF) suspensions showed that TOCNF had the highest transparency (> 95%) because of better dispersion, resulted from the highest carboxylate content (1.2 mmol/g). The consistent scattering and microscopic results indicated that TOCNFs from jute and spinifex grasses possessed rectangular cross-sections, while NOCNFs exhibited near square cross-sections. This study revealed that different oxidation methods can result in different degrees of biomass exfoliation and different CNF morphology.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-3400, USA

    ChengBo Zhan, Priyanka R. Sharma, LiHong Geng, Sunil K. Sharma, RuiFu Wang, Ritika Joshi & Benjamin S. Hsiao

  2. National Engineer Research Center of Novel Equipment for Polymer Processing, Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering of Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    LiHong Geng

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  1. ChengBo Zhan
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  2. Priyanka R. Sharma
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Correspondence to Benjamin S. Hsiao.

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Zhan, C., Sharma, P.R., Geng, L. et al. Structural characterization of carboxyl cellulose nanofibers extracted from underutilized sources. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 62, 971–981 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-018-9441-1

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