Due to their unique properties, cellulose nanocrystals have generated lots of excitement in the field of cellulose science. Among other reasons, nano scale dimensions of CNCs have a strong influence on the properties. Recently, we have investigated morphological and structural characteristics of CNCs from wood-pulp, cotton, bacteria, tunicate, and cladophora. Crystallinity data obtained by 380-Raman method indicated that compared to the crystallinities of the original celluloses the crystallinity of was higher for bacterial CNCs, stayed same for pulp-CNCs, and was lower in the cases of the CNCs of tunicate, cladophora, and cotton. In the case of pulp, the presence of hemicellulose was not an issue because its contribution was accounted for in the estimation method. To further investigate this issue, crystallinities of the CNCs were also obtained in never-dried state and it was concluded that drying did affect the values of the Raman crystallinities. Therefore, it is likely that the manner in which the CNCs are dried and consolidated is an important determinant of crystallinity in the dried-state. This suggests that, upon drying, variations between the organized cellulose chains within the CNCs dictate how the aggregation occurs.

Understanding crystallinity change upon production of CNCs

251st National Meeting (2016)

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