Cellulose nanocrystals extracted from different cellulose sources using high intensity ultrasound
Cellulosic nanomaterials (nanocellulose) has gained much attention, especially for applications to reinforce polymeric nanocomposites. They can be extracted using several techniques, such as high intensity ultrasound (HIUS) using only water as solvent. HIUS was applied on different cellulose sources (residues of bacterial cellulose membrane, curaua, sugarcane bagasse and viscose residue) in distinct conditions, evaluating mass and time effects. The materials were characterized by XRD, optical microscopy, FT-IR, FT-Raman, SEM, TEM, DLS, AFM, AFM-IR and TGA. HIUS leaded to a higher crystallinity index, mainly to curaua samples (where crystallinity index increased from 89.7 to 93.8 5). It was possible to obtain nanocellulose from all sources in all conditions, but a mixture of particles of micro and nano scales were obtained for curaua, sugarcane bagasse and viscose residue. The energy consumption of the best sonication condition (140 MWh/ton), using 2 g of bacterial cellulose in 150 mL of water during 45 min, reported the lowest value among the literature of nanocellulose from HIUS until now. Thereby, the nanocellulose extracted by HIUS in this project shows the potential to be applied as reinforcement in nanocomposites.