Abstract
With rapid developments in science and technology, mankind is faced with the dual severe challenges of obtaining needed resources and protecting the environment. The need for sustainable development strategies has become a global consensus. As the most abundant biological resource on Earth, cellulose is an inexhaustible, natural, and renewable polymer. Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) offers the advantages of abundant raw materials, high strength, and good degradability. Simultaneously, MFC prepared from natural materials has high practical significance due to its potential application in nanocomposites. In this study, we reported the preparation of MFCs from discarded cotton with short fibers by a combination of Fe2+ catalyst-preloading Fenton oxidation and a high-pressure homogenization cycle method. Lignin was removed from the discarded cotton with an acetic acid and sodium chlorite mixed solution. Then, the cotton was treated with NaOH solution to obtain cotton cellulose and oxidized using Fenton oxidation to obtain Fenton-oxidized cotton cellulose. The carboxylic acid content of the oxidized cotton cellulose was 126.87 μmol/g, and the zeta potential was −43.42 mV. Then, the Fenton-oxidized cotton cellulose was treated in a high-speed blender under a high-pressure homogenization cycle to obtain the MFC with a yield of 91.58%. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicated that cotton cellulose was effectively oxidized by Fe2+ catalyst-preloading Fenton oxidation. The diameter of the MFC ranged from several nanometers to a few micrometers as determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the crystallinity index (CrI) of the MFC was 83.52% according to X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the thermal stability of the MFC was slightly reduced compared to cotton cellulose, as seen through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The use of catalyst-preloading Fenton oxidation technology, based on the principles of microreactors, along with high-pressure homogenization, was a promising technique to prepare MFCs from discarded cotton.
Highlights
Cotton is an important cash crop that plays a key role in economic affairs worldwide [1]
As an excellent natural material, cotton provides the main supply of natural fibers for textile industries and other fields [2, 3]. e production of cotton fabrics has constantly increased in the past few decades, and necessities made of cotton can be found practically everywhere consumer textile products are sold. e annual production of cotton fibers is approximately 25.43 million tons [2], and, with the rapid increase in the global population, the demand for, and consumption of, cotton is increasing year by year worldwide
In the process of combining cotton to produce fabrics, short fibers that lack the quality to form threads are discarded and piled up [4]. e discarded cotton becomes trash and accumulates in waste dumps. e massive accumulation of discarded cotton is a huge waste of valuable resources, and, more importantly, discarded cotton causes severe environmental pollution. e discarded cotton fiber is mainly comprised of cellulose [5], and cellulose is a homopolymer of β-1,4-d-glucose molecules linked in a linear chain [6]
Summary
Cotton is an important cash crop that plays a key role in economic affairs worldwide [1]. Catalyst-preloading Fenton oxidation technology based on the microreactor principle is an effective method of MFC preparation [17], as it can improve the oxidation efficiency and effectively reduce the amount of hydrogen peroxide. Us, catalyst-preloading Fenton oxidation was performed on discarded cotton, followed by high-pressure homogenization to prepare MFCs. When the pH value of the Fenton oxidation system was 3.0, the effects of various parameters, such as the H2O2 dose, FeSO4·7H2O dose, reaction temperature, and time, on the Fenton oxidation efficiency were discussed in the production process of MFCs. the MFC was characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, and TGA. E results indicated that the use of catalyst-preloading Fenton oxidation technology based on the microreactor principle along with high-pressure homogenization was a promising technique to prepare MFCs from discarded cotton The MFC was characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, and TGA. e results indicated that the use of catalyst-preloading Fenton oxidation technology based on the microreactor principle along with high-pressure homogenization was a promising technique to prepare MFCs from discarded cotton
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