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Facile synthesis of nanocellulose from wheat straw as an agricultural waste

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Abstract

Agriculture waste is the most economic and promising source of raw materials. Wheat straw is a highly produced agricultural waste and its biodegradable nature makes it a perfect candidate for the synthesis of nanocellulose. Amalgamation of two techniques, i.e., chemical and mechanical techniques is used for synthesis of nanocellulose from agricultural waste. In the first technique, chemicals such as sodium hydroxide pellets (NaOH), sodium chlorite (NaClO2) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) were used, and in the second one cryocrushing was used with the help of liquid nitrogen. Further, nanocellulose characteristics were examined by various techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the synthesized nanoparticles possessed 76.43% crystallinity and an average diameter of 5 nm. Fourier transform-infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy indicated that the molecular structure of cellulose was sustained through sulfuric acid hydrolysis. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) indicated the increase in the decomposition temperature. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the spherical morphology. Electrical characterization indicated that nanocellulose obeyed Arrhenius equation. Synthesized nanocellulose exhibited high crystallinity, high aspect ratio, thermal stability as well as electrical conductivity. Due to its exclusive physical and chemical characteristics like biocompatibility, light weight, optical transparency, adaptable surface chemistry, mechanical and thermal stability, nanocellulose has numerous applications in day to day life as well as in the medical field, etc.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India, for providing all the facilities to carry out this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomedical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, 136119, India

    Poonam Nehra

  2. Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, 136119, India

    Rishi Pal Chauhan

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  1. Poonam Nehra
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  2. Rishi Pal Chauhan
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Contributions

PN: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft preparation. RPC: supervision, reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to Poonam Nehra.

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Nehra, P., Chauhan, R.P. Facile synthesis of nanocellulose from wheat straw as an agricultural waste. Iran Polym J 31, 771–778 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13726-022-01040-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13726-022-01040-0

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