Crude cellulose prepared from alkali-extracted sugarcane bagasse was subjected to a rapid purification treatment with 80% acetic acid-68% nitric acid (10/1, v/v) at 120 oC for 15 min. The crude and purified cellulose preparations were comparatively studied by FTIR, XRD, SEM, and CP/MAS 13C NMR spectroscopy. It was found that the yields of the preparations decreased slightly from 57.3%-58.6% in the crude cellulose samples to 50.3%-51.9% in the purified cellulose samples. In addition, the purification treatment removed a large quantity of resistant hemicelluloses strongly bound to the cellulose together with a noticeable acetylation of cellulose. XRD analysis revealed that the structure of both the crude and purified cellulose was cellulose I. Compared to the crude cellulose, a slight increase of the crystallinity index in the purified cellulose was observed by XRD and NMR. SEM showed that the macrofibril surface of the crude cellulose was almost free of trenches, but many terraces, steps, and kinks formed after the purification.

Rapid purification of crude cellulose from sugarcane bagasse: Structural and morphological characterization

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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