Chapter 3 - Recent trends in isolation of cellulose nanocrystals and nanofibrils from various forest wood and nonwood products and their application

Abstract

Nanocellulose materials have attained rapid development in recent days, owing to its widespread availability, renewability, environmental friendly nature, less weight and nanoscale dimension, exceptional mechanical properties, low density, cost-effective, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. The above groundbreaking properties of nanocellulose offer as a promising cheap alternative to replacing fossil resources polymers. Recently, more attention has been focused on the isolation of cellulose from various sustainable sources. Two different types of nanocellulose, that is cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and nanofibrils (CNF), have diverse morphology and characteristics. Rod-like structure of CNC might be isolated from natural sources such as agricultural and industrial wastes, plants, tunicates, and bacterial cellulose using acid hydrolysis of the amorphous region. Similar isolation from same sources was accounted for web-like network CNF with the help of various mechanical processes such as grinding, high-pressure homogenization, and purification. In this book chapter, we have manifested in details about the isolation of nanocellulose from various sources such as wood and nonwood followed by characterization of nanocellulose with different techniques and its wide range of applications.