The present study evaluates the crystallinity of cellulose isolated from banana rachis (BR) and corn husk (CH); as well as from bacterial cellulose (BC) before and after cryogenic milling. Samples from CH and BR were chemically treated according to Zuluaga et al. (2005) to remove the non-cellulosic components, while BC was purified by an alkaline process. The samples were subsequently homogenized using a grinding equipment (Masuko Sangyo, Supermascolloider MKCA6-2) and freeze dried. The product was processed by a cryogenic mill (Retsch, Cryomill) at four different times (10, 20, 30 and 40 min). The milling effectively decreased the crystallinity of the cellulosic samples, with an almost complete conversion to amorphous cellulose at the higher times. The infrared spectra obtained of the specimens using an attenuated total reflectance accessory indicate changes in the 800-1200 and 3000-3600 cm<sup>-1</sup> regions, related to cellulose crystallinity. These observations were confirmed by X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis.

Effect of the change of the crystalline structure on the infrared spectra by ATR of cellulose from banana rachis, corn husk and bacterial cellulose

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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