Although a number of methods exist for measuring cellulose crystallinity, none of them is entirely satisfactory. The authors have recently proposed use of univariate and multivariate FT-Raman methods to estimate crystallinities in celluloses [Agarwal et. al., Cellulose, 17, 721(2010)]. Subsequently, using the univariate Raman method crystallinities of nanocelluloses, woods, wood pulps, and agriculture fibers were successfully determined and differences from Segal values were reported. Further studies were recently carried out to understand how the presence of non-cellulose components in biomaterials influences the crystallinity measurements. It was found that whereas, on one hand Segal crystallinity is significantly underestimated when lignin and/or hemicellulose are present, in contrast, the Raman crystallinity was overestimated, but only when the materials contained significant amount of syringyl-lignin. Therefore, comparing the two methods the Raman crystallinity method was found to be superior. Additionally, the issue of minimizing composition related crystallinity error will be discussed.

Cellulose crystallinity of biomass: Comparing the accuracy of Segal WAXS and univariate FT-Raman methods

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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