Optimal Design of Ozone Bleaching Parameters to Approach Cellulose Nanofibers Extraction from Sugarcane Bagasse Fibers

• Published in: Journal of polymers and the environment 2018-10, Vol.26 (10), p.4085-4094
• Main Authors: Bahrami, Bahador, Behzad, Tayebeh, Zamani, Akram, Heidarian, Pejman, Nasri-Nasrabadi, Bijan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bagasse; Biorefineries; Bleaching; CARBON FIBERS; CELLULOSE; Cellulose fibers; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; CHLORINE; Design optimization; Design parameters; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Fibers; Fibrillation; Fourier transforms; HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Infrared spectroscopy; Light scattering; Liquid chromatography; Materials Science; Microscopy; Morphology; NANOFIBERS; NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; Organic chemistry; Original Paper; Ozone; Photon correlation spectroscopy; Polymer Sciences; Pulp; Refineries; Response surface methodology; SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY; Size distribution; SUGAR CANE; Sugarcane; Sulfur; TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
• ISSN: 1566-2543; 1572-8919
• DOI: 10.1007/s10924-018-1277-5

Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) were isolated from sugarcane bagasse (SCB) through the combination of bio-refinery, sulfur-free, and totally chlorine free (TCF) chemo-mechanical pretreatments, with a focus on the optimal design of ozone bleaching parameters based on a response surface methodology (RSM). For this purpose, the most effective parameters in ozone bleaching (temperature, time, and pulp consistency) were set between 40 and 85 °C, 60 and 360 min, and 1–5 wt%, respectively. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Kappa number, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to chemically and morphologically characterize the SCB fibers. The size distribution and morphology of CNFs were also evaluated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). HPLC analysis revealed that percentage of cellulose increased from 41.5 to 91.39% after chemical pretreatments. FTIR and Kappa number analyses also confirmed the successful isolation of cellulose fibers from the SCB fibers after chemical pretreatments. Furthermore, DLS results showed that the hydrodynamic diameter of the isolated cellulose fibers reduced to 268 nm by dint of ultrasonication. Additionally, TEM images confirmed the isolation of CNFs: the average diameter of cellulose fibers decreased to about 28 nm after mechanical steps and the yield of fibrillation was found to be around 99%. According to the obtained results, the applied chemo-mechanical treatment appears to be promising for green and facile isolation of CNFs.