A comparison of cellulose nanocrystals and cellulose nanofibres extracted from bagasse using acid and ball milling methods

This study compared the fundamental properties of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) extracted from sugarcane bagasse. Conventional hydrolysis was used to extract CNC while ball milling was used to extract CNF. Images generated by scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope showed CNC was needle-like with relatively lower aspect ratio and CNF was rope-like in structure with higher aspect ratio. Fourier-transformed infrared spectra showed that the chemical composition of nanocellulose and extracted cellulose were identical and quite different from bagasse. Dynamic light scattering studies showed that CNC had uniform particle size distribution with a median size of 148 nm while CNF had a bimodal size distribution with median size 240 ± 12 nm and 10 μm. X-ray diffraction showed that the amorphous portion was removed during hydrolysis; this resulted in an increase in the crystalline portion of CNC compared to CNF. Thermal degradation of cellulose initiated at a much lower temperature, in the case of the nanocrystals while the CNF prepared by ball milling were not affected, indicating higher thermal stability.