Abstract
Crystalline cellulose nanofibers are obtained from the bark of Cereus Forbesii, a cactus native to the arid areas of South America. The obtaining of cellulose nanofibers was carried out in several steps: pretreatment of the raw material, elimination of hemicellulose and lignin to obtain cellulose, and an acid hydrolysis of cellulose to obtain crystalline cellulose nanofibers. The cellulose nanofibers obtained have a crystallinity index of 82% and a nanofiber diameter of 18 nm. An average crystallite size of 6 nm was calculated for the crystalline domains that form cellulose nanofibers. The high crystallinity of the obtained cellulose nanofibers makes the sample very homogeneous and decomposes in a relatively narrow temperature range (between 290°C and 375°C). The complete degradation of crystalline cellulose polymer chains takes place between 375°C and 600°C. The morphological and structural studies are carried out by scanning electron microscopy of field emission, infrared spectrometry with Fourier transform, and powder X-ray diffraction. The thermal stability of the samples is determined by thermogravimetric analysis.
Highlights
Cellulose obtained from natural sources has been used by man in many applications for centuries
As far as we know, no variety of cactus has been studied. In this manuscript we report the obtaining of crystalline cellulose nanofibers from the bark of Cereus Forbesii, a cactus native to arid areas of South America
A second step of the chemical treatment is the acid hydrolysis of cellulose. This process produces the crystalline cellulose nanofibers shown in figure 2c
Summary
Cellulose obtained from natural sources has been used by man in many applications for centuries. The development in materials engineering has allowed us to add new uses of cellulose. There are two kinds of nanocellulose: cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), and crystalline cellulose nanofibers (CNF) 15. The fibers of the plants are formed mainly by cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. 19-22 Such cellulose fibers are formed by amorphous regions and monocrystalline domains 23. Cellulose is ordered in the form of fibers encapsulated by other non-cellulosic components of the plant cell wall . Both components, amorphous and crystalline, can be separated by controlled acid hydrolysis
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