The influence of sunflower nanocellulose on the quality indicators of moisture-resistant packaging cardboard

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There is a steady trend in the world to increase the production of packaging cardboard and paper materials, in particular moisture-resistant container cardboard, which is intended for packaging chilled and frozen products. At the same time, the technology for producing moisture-resistant container cardboard uses chemical additives (CDA), which are usually synthesized from exhaustible energy sources (oil, gas, coal), which pollute the environment and harm human health. An alternative to environmentally harmful CDA are natural biodegradable materials, which include nanocellulose (NC). NC has unique properties and great potential for application in various industries, in particular for improving the performance of paper and cardboard. The paper presents the results of research into the processes of obtaining cellulose and nanocellulose from sunflower stems and the influence of nanocellulose on the quality indicators of moisture-resistant cardboard. The chemical composition and morphological structure of the woody part and parenchyma of sunflower stems were determined. Changes in the yield, residual lignin content and mineral substances in cellulose during the thermochemical treatment of sunflower stalks by extraction with alkali and peracetic solution are presented. The influence of technological parameters of the process of hydrolysis of organosolvent sunflower cellulose on the quality indicators of nanocellulose (NC) is studied. It was established that sunflower NC particles have a transverse size of 6–20 nm, a length of tens of micrometers, the NC suspension has a density of up to 1.51 g/cm³, and NC films have a tensile strength of up to 65.4 MPa, transparency of up to 83%, a crystallinity index of up to 78.4% and a lateral order index of up to 1.83. The influence of sunflower NC on the quality indicators of moisture-resistant container cardboard is studied. It has been established that increasing the consumption of NC in the range from 1 to 5 kg/t of cardboard has a positive effect on its quality indicators, in particular on mechanical strength and water resistance. The use of sunflower NC in the composition of moisture-resistant cardboard allows replacing 50% of environmentally harmful synthetic chemical auxiliary substances used in the production of paper and cardboard.